


The Disappearance of Hana Mizuno

by Hinganbachuru (Twilight_Joltik)



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fun with Timelines, Gen, M/M, Mysterious Disappearance, Televoid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 03:55:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 19,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10403382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight_Joltik/pseuds/Hinganbachuru
Summary: Hana suddenly vanished from Asagao Academy without a trace, forgotten by all but Mai, Ian, and PBG, who are determined to find out what happened and get her back. But, her impact on the school is far from gone, and the void she left has to be filled by someone.





	1. The Disappearance of Hana Mizuno

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been trying to come up with a longer Asagao fic for a while, and when I came up with this idea, I finally felt I had something I could work with. So, I hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> Also I started writing this before learning that Satch is gay IRL, hence why his route's mentioned. It's addressed pretty quickly and the romantic element of the route is dismissed by the third chapter but I might go back and try and change any mentions of the romance all together at some point.

Hana had vanished at some point during the night. Mai knew that much, but what she didn’t get was how she’d brought every single one of her belongings with her. Not just Mr. Bunny and her clothes, but every pencil, every paper, and even the scent of her on the sheets of the bottom bunk. It was like she’d never been in that room at all.

 

Her first instinct was to dismiss it as a joke. She’d been out cold, after all; volleyball practice had completely drained her, and she didn’t think anything could have awoken her. Not even her best friend and and several teenage boys giggling and moving things out of her room, apparently.

 

But, as soon as she saw how confused PBG looked in class, and how Hana utterly failed to show up, that idea vanished in its tracks. If it was a joke- and that idea sounded a lot more ridiculous as sleep cleared from her mind- then PBG definitely wasn’t in on it.

 

Miss Shizuka didn’t even question Hana’s absence, and that alone was enough to make Mai feel uneasy. She questioned Shane’s absence, so it wasn’t like she was too distraught or hung over to care, but she didn’t even so much as glance at the empty seat where Hana usually sat.

 

Even weirder, Mimi didn’t ask Mai anything in her grating, fake-sweet way like she normally did when Hana was gone. So unlike her- she always wanted to know why people were gone in case it was something juicy.

 

It was like no one cared Hana was just not there for some reason, and everything about that made Mai sick. Hana was important! She’d just joined the Normal Boots Club too, so why wouldn’t people be talking about her? Everything about Hana was fascinating, on top of the fact she was a great person, so why was her not being there so beneath notice?

 

Midway through class, a note found its way onto her desk. It was unsigned, but the handwriting was unmistakably Comic Sans. It had to be from Ian, and just reading it made her let out a sigh of relief.

 

“hey where’s hana?? is she ok??”

 

She wrote back quickly. “She wasn’t in her bed this morning and all her stuff was gone so honestly idk.”

 

As she passed it to Ian, she realized something strange: Ian hadn’t really ever cared that much about Hana. They were only ever almost-friends and competitors, so why did Ian bother asking if she was okay?

 

Her answer came in the form of a reply tossed at her when Shizuka’s back was turned. “wow that sounds weird hope she’s okay”

 

She would have written a reply, but Mimi decided to take note of the note-passing before she could and quickly snatched the note out of her hands before she could take note and stop her. The note returned with a bright pink note added on the side: “lol who the hell is Hana?”

 

Ugh, stupid Mimi Santos and her stupid unhelpful- huh? Wait, why would she have written… that, of all insults?

 

Yeah, okay, this was… something. Either a wide-scale prank or something really weird. Mai needed to get to the bottom of this. So, she scribbled something on the other side of the note. “Hallway. Now. Give this to Ian too.”

 

She passed it to PBG, whose eyes widened as he read it and passed it to Ian, who didn’t waste any time in taking the bathroom pass and leaving.

 

Okay, no bathroom pass, so she’d have to get… creative. She started coughing up a storm, and when Shizuka gave her a strange look, she raised her hand.

 

“C-can I go to the nurse?”, she asked in the most strained voice she could muster.

 

All she got was a nod as she stumbled out of the classroom as feebly as possible. Ian gave her a weird look as she stepped out and straightened herself up.

 

“So!”, she started. “What the actual hell do you think’s up?”

 

Ian shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought at first she was sick, but you were all confused, so I really couldn’t say.”

 

“Did you see what Mimi put on the note?”, Mai added.

 

A nod. “That confuses me too. I’ll ask the guys if they’ve seen her, but, I…”

 

He trailed off, but before Mai could press him for more, PBG came barrelling out of the room.

 

“Okay, they’re gonna realize something’s up real quick, so before they can, let’s go somewhere,” PBG prompted.

 

“Follow me.” Ian walked ahead of the two of them, and Mai started following without thinking.

 

In a low voice, PBG continued talking. “So, like, Hana’s just… gone?”, he questioned.

 

Mai nodded. “Seems that way.”

 

“Did you try calling her dad?”, PBG questioned. “Maybe she had to leave to do something for him?”

 

That seemed more likely than anything else, but it didn’t explain the Mimi thing. So, Mai just shrugged. “It makes sense, but I don’t have his number.”

 

“Yeah, me neither,” PBG muttered.

 

A lapse of silence, as they tried to think of something more, until something seemingly obvious occurred to Mai.

 

“Should we ask Satch?”, she suggested.

 

PBG raised an eyebrow. “Satch? Why Satch?”

 

Okay, why wasn’t that obvious? “He’s her boyfriend,” Mai explained. “I mean, if anyone’s gonna know something, and it’s not me, it’s-”

 

“Stop.” PBG stopped walking. “Just… what do you mean, he’s her boyfriend?”

 

Mai blinked. “They just got together, don’t you remember?”

 

Silence from both guys. “At her first Normal Boots meeting!”, Mai continued. “Remember, they told everyone and-”

 

“No, I don’t remember!”, PBG huffed. “That doesn't make any sense in like, twelve different ways!”

 

Okay, this was getting weird. But, before Mai could object, Ian piped up. “Of course that didn’t happen, Hana’s not in Normal Boots, for one!”

 

Weirder. It was getting weirder. “Of course Hana’s in Normal Boots, she won the tournament against you and-”

 

“The tournament’s not for ages!”, Ian exclaimed. “And even if it happened, she’d be on our side!”

 

“Your side?” PBG gave Ian the strange look Mai hadn’t quite gotten on her face yet. “But, she’s in Normal Boots!”

 

“She’s in Hidden Block!”, Ian corrected. “She joined the other day, because we offered her our friendship without any strings attached!”

 

An offended gasp from PBG. “We weren’t attaching strings! Shane was just-”

 

“Oh, to hell with Shane!”, Mai interrupted. “We need to stop squabbling and sort everything out, because clearly something’s up.”

 

Ian nodded. “Fine. I’ll start: Hana’s a member of Hidden Block, it’s like, a week after the Flower Festival, and the tournament won’t be for a while.”

 

“But, the Flower Festival was ages ago!”, Mai protested.

 

PBG nodded in agreement, and Ian’s eyes widened. “So that’s why… no, that can’t be…”

 

“Can’t be what?”, Mai asked.

 

Ian shook his head. “I’m just wondering where all time went.”

 

“Same place as Hana, probably,” PBG muttered. “And speaking of Hana, um, Mai, you said she was dating... Satch? Are you really sure about that?”

 

“Why does that matter?” Ian huffed. “I evidently time traveled, I think that’s a bit more important than Hana’s boyfriend!”

 

“I- I know,” PBG assured him. “It’s just, well, I… I remember it differently. I was dating Hana, from what I remember, so, I don’t know what’s up there.”

 

Mai shook her head. “So… we remember three different Hanas?”

 

“And none of them are here,” PBG added.

  
A sigh from Ian. “Alright, this is fucking weird.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I'm not entirely sure where I'm going quite yet, so, if anyone has any ideas for pairings or anything, let me know!


	2. Hana Who?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anything else, I just want to thank everyone so much for all the lovely reviews so far! I'm so, so happy everyone likes it so much so far, and I really hope everyone continues to enjoy it! With that said, enjoy the show~!

The three of them had to move their conversation outside to avoid being heard by anyone in the halls. Ian suggested under a tree in the middle of the field, and Mai had to admit, it was a nice place to talk. Yes, she had to glare over at PBG every so often to stop him from climbing the tree, but other than that, very nice.

 

Less nice were the thoughts swirling in her head. Whatever this was, it couldn’t be natural. All three of them remembered the last month or two very differently- hell, Ian didn’t remember it all aside from Hana joining Hidden Block- and god knows what anyone else would remember of the past while.

 

“Do you think… maybe something like, magic or something happened?”, Mai mused.

 

She expected to be quickly dismissed, but instead Ian nods in agreement and PBG shrugs. “Well, I mean, Jared sparkles, our missing friend has natural pink hair, and I’m pretty sure that one girl in our class is a robot. Magic isn’t out of the question here.”

 

“And I…” Ian started to say something, but he stopped, and before Mai could press him to say more answers, PBG’s phone started to buzz.

 

A groan. “I should really turn notifications off for the group chat,” he muttered. But, his eyes widened in surprise instead.

 

“Not the group chat?”, Mai guessed, and he nodded.

 

“Heh, looks like word got around I was ‘sick’,” he explained. “Jirard’s worried and Jared’s asking if I was sneaking off to make out with someone.”

 

He added an “I wish” under his breath, and Mai noticed he seemed near tears. Something occurred to Mai as she debated whether or not to comfort him. He’d always seemed to like Hana, but, they’d been dating in his memory, right? Now he’s lost his girlfriend- one who’d been a dear friend before a girlfriend at that.

 

She put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry about all this,” she said as kindly as she could. “We’ll find her, okay? We’ll figure this out.”

 

A sniffle, but PBG smiled. “Thanks, Mai. But, um, Ian, are you alright?”

 

“I lost several weeks of my life or contracted serious amnesia from something based around a girl I met two weeks ago, so no,” he deadpanned.

 

God, Mai felt so bad for everyone. But… no, she felt bad for herself too. She’d very well may have lost the person most important to her, after all.

 

But before she could think on that terrifying thought too long, PBG sighed loudly. “Looks like we faked being sick right up until lunch.”

 

“Already?”, Mai questioned. “I could have sworn it was earlier!”

 

Ian shrugged. “I mean, we might have time travelled but it felt like a pretty damn long time to me.”

 

Well, Mai supposed time would fly when you were worrying about your best friend. Or maybe she’d just spent so long passing notes in class that she’d lost track of the time entirely. Either way, her stomach definitely felt the passage of time, so she started towards the lunchroom without thinking.

 

PBG rushed after her. “Let’s ask everyone what they remember about Hana at lunch!”, he suggested. “And Ian!” He turned to Ian, who had seemingly followed them as well. “You can ask Hidden Block!”

 

Without even looking, Mai knew Ian was rolling his eyes.

 

But, when they got to the lunchroom, the Normal Boots seemed empty enough to make Mai feel like crying. Yeah, sure Shane was sick or something and PBG wasn’t sitting with them yet, but something else felt off. Jirard, Satch, and Jared were all there, as were Continue, but it felt like more than two were missing.

 

Was it Hana? But, Hana hadn’t sat with them much while the Boots were missing, and it hadn’t looked that empty. Besides, she’d almost always go to lunch with Hana, so it wasn’t normal to even see her there with them!

 

Maybe it was more the feeling of it all. They seemed kind of dour themselves. Not even Jirard was smiling- a sure sign of the apocalypse.

 

“Hey, guys!”, PBG called, rushing over without even bothering to get food first.. “Uh, weird question; anyone seen Hana?”

 

A strange moment of silence as Mai approached. It was only broken by a confused noise from Jared. “Hana? Hana who?”

 

The air felt ice-cold. “Hana Mizuno!”, Ian exclaimed. “You know, pink hair, red hair bow, Mai’s roommate!”

 

“Mai, you told us you didn’t have a roommate!”, Jirard exclaimed.

 

“H-huh?” Okay, first of all, what? And second of all, WHAT?

 

“Oh, Mai!”, Paul suddenly exclaimed. “Uh, sorry about your jacket again. The new one’s on backorder…”

 

Her what.

 

“No, no, back to Hana!”, Mai exclaimed. “Are you saying you don’t remember her?”

 

“I am saying I have genuinely no idea who you’re talking about,” Satch clarified. “I don’t think any Hanas go to this school, let alone one with pink hair.”

 

Mai’s insides were boiling with frustration. “Sh-she was your girlfriend!”, she practically screamed. “She was friends with all of you! She competed at the tournament with you, she helped you guys, she- sh-she…”

 

A sob came out of her mouth before she could stop it. “She was my best friend…” she breathlessly muttered.

 

Everyone was staring at her, not just Normal Boots. But, even Normal Boots was looking at her like her every word was nonsense.

 

No one remembered Hana, did they? Was this some sort of cruel joke? Was this the universe playing some trick on her, for daring to think someone could love and accept her? Hana had been real, right? PBG and Ian remembered her, so she couldn’t have made her up! Oh god, she really was gone, wasn’t she?

 

Before she could properly react, she found herself in a hug. A yellow-clad arm was wrapped around her. Ian, Ian was hugging her.

 

“It’s gonna be alright, okay?”, Ian assured her. “We’ll figure this out.”

 

Wow, the ice king’s hugs were really nice, it turned out. She was glad, at least, she had someone’s support.

 

“Thank you…”, she muttered into his shoulder. “And we’ll get you figured out too, I promise.”

 

Before she could hear Ian’s reply, or ask what Paul had meant about her jacket, or figure out anything at all, Ian let go of her and gave a weird chuckle.

 

She followed the collective eyelines of everyone in the cafeteria. They were staring at not her, but Shane, who was walking in with a death glare on his face and bright pink hair.

 

A few giggles escaped her mouth. Who had done that? What, had they put dye in his shampoo or something? He looked pretty pissed about it.

 

Shane didn’t even bother to sit down at the table, he just practically snarled at everyone in Normal Boots before someone said something. “Wow, nice hair,” deadpanned Josh, only to be elbowed by Nick.

 

“Which one of you little shits did this to me?”, Shane shouted.

 

No one spoke up.

 

“It won’t come out, no matter how much I wash it,” Shane went on. “And I can’t find any dye stains on my sheets or anywhere in my room, so how the hell did you even do this?”

 

More dead silence, but PBG was the first whose face turned from confusion to understanding.

 

Of course, this meant Shane cast his glare to him. “You did this? How, and how do I get it out!”

 

PBG just shook his head. “No, I don’t think you’ll be getting rid of that… And, it definitely wasn’t me.”

 

Shane’s hands curled into fists. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“Well, I guess, without Hana, someone else had to be the protagonist, right?”

 

That made sense to Mai, but seemingly to no one else, because Shane seemed seconds away from clocking him across the face.

 

“Who the hell is Hana?”, he huffed.

  
This would take a lot of explaining, wouldn’t it?


	3. Shane Gill and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long to get out! But, I hope you enjoy it!

Shane Gill wasn’t having what anyone would call a “good day”. Granted, perhaps he’d had much more violently bad days in his life, especially those where he got actually kidnapped. But, having a complete mental breakdown was in ways much worse.

 

He assumed at first it was a cruel joke and tried to wash the pink out but… nothing. It wouldn’t come out. Not a single bit of progress was made with probably two hours of constant water and shampoo on it. He was pinker than Turbie even still. As a last-ditch effort, he considered finding dye or bleach, but couldn’t figure out where he’d get it at such an hour when not really allowed to leave the school, so he decided to wait until school let out to try such a thing.

 

But, he couldn’t quite bring himself to not eat lunch, and he wanted to figure out who’d done this- maybe they’d be able to tell him how to undo it- so he went up to the lunch room and quickly regretted his decision as everyone started to stare. Everyone. But, no, he had to keep going. Normal Boots knew something- maybe the girl who’d just joined their ranks, the redhead that’d been far too good at puzzles for someone who’d never held a controller in her life- Mai, right? Maybe she’d know, or Ian would, or someone.

 

He shouted out his accusations when close enough, and everyone just looked between each other before PBG, of all people, nodded in understanding.

 

When he asked if he did it, all he spat out was something about it not being him but that he wouldn’t get it out any time soon and what the actual hell was that supposed to mean? But his blood ran cold as PBG went on.

 

“Well, I guess, without Hana, someone else had to be the protagonist, right?”

 

Protagonist, the word had haunted him for years. The strange affliction of his ex, the one he’d taken to calling “She Who Shall Not Be Named”, the one who’d haunted his dreams for the past two years. No, no, he couldn’t be the Protagonist, could he?

 

But, who the hell was Hana? He’d never heard of a Hana. He questioned everyone, who just gave him blank stared before Jared scoffed.

 

“Seems she’s Mai’s roommate, Satch’s girlfriend, I think she’s supposed to be in Hidden Block.”

 

All of those things seemed laughable. Mai didn’t have a roommate- her loneliness was the reason she’d sought their company in the first place! And Satch was about as interested in a girlfriend as Shane was in having pink hair. Hidden Block seemed a bit more plausible- he was half convinced Wallid didn’t actually exist on the same plane of existence as the rest of the students anyways, and only a bit less that Jimmy and Caddy didn’t occupy the same space. A (presumably) pink-haired, impossible girl wasn’t much stranger than those three, or Ian or Jeff, just in a much less pleasant and inviting way.

 

“C-can we maybe talk about this in the club room?”, PBG requested. “Everyone’s staring, and it’ll take a while to actually explain.”

 

Shane sighed deeply. Wasn’t like he had any better ideas.

 

* * *

 

According to Mai, Hana was a transfer student from the town of Amaririsu in third year, Shizuka’s class. She sat with Jared on the train ride to the school and quickly drew the attention of Normal Boots. Ian noticed she was good at puzzle games, so they struck a bargain- if Hana could help them win the tournament, she could join their club. Same deal they’d made for Mai, come to think of it. But, the golden boots statue had gotten stolen and Hana and herself became the prime suspects for their theft. Turns out it had been Caddy, but that was irrelevant and Mai deemed him a “bad kappa” for the actions, while Hana had won the tournament for them and also Satch’s heart.

 

According to PBG, Hana was his childhood best friend who he’d lost contact with after he moved from Amaririsu to Wasurenagusa. He’d barely recognized the shy, pink-haired girl when he first saw her, but soon learned it was the same Hana he remembered, but due to some dubious amnesia, she didn’t remember him. The same deal with Normal Boots had been made, Hana had won the competition, and thanks to some prodding from some fake stalking and terrible love letters from Luke, PBG and Hana had started dating.

 

According to Ian, he gave “absolutely zero damns” about where Hana was from, but Normal Boots had offered to let her join on their suggestion. But, she ended up ditching them in favor of some “real friends who aren’t too snobby to bait her into working for them with the hollow promise of friendship.” Also somehow he’d jumped a month or two ahead in time from then, or at least forgotten what had happened in that time.

 

They all claimed to have woken up to a completely different world- or at least one slightly and eerily changed, where for whatever reason they were the only three people to remember Hana Mizuno’s existence, which all other traces of had been scrubbed from the world.

 

This was complete bullshit, something they all knew, but it was their best explanation and they were sticking to it.

 

After they were done, Jared sighed. “Look, all three of you are very dear friends, but I can’t believe any of that.”

 

A distraught noise from Mai and PBG.

 

“You don’t believe us?”, Mai questioned, sounding hurt.

 

Jared just shook his head as Paul raised his hand, as if to be called on by the teacher who wasn’t in the room.

 

“As for me, as much as I hate to say it, and I swore I never would again I…”

 

Paul shuddered, as if the words made him physically ill to say. “Agree w-with Jared.”

 

Nick gasped overdramatically. “Say it isn't so!”

 

“Well, as much as I want to believe you guys,” said Paul, frowning. “I just don't think that's exactly what's going on here. Not saying there's not something but-”

 

“You can't even get your own stories straight,” Josh interjected.

 

“None of us can get anything straight!”, Paul countered. “I swear, it must be a prerequisite to applying to this school…”

 

A small chuckle from Mai. “Well, I mean, straight Asagao students are a freaking cryptid, but that’s beside the point. Why… doesn’t anyone believe us? Do you have a better explanation for why Shane’s hair magically turned pink?”

 

Shane sighed. And that’s where this left him- having to believe some bizarre story about a girl with pink hair blinking out of existence. He’d seen some weird shit with She Who Shall Not Be Named, but nothing quite that arcane.

 

But it was all he had, so he took a deep breath and went to bat. “I believe them, if it counts for anything.”

 

Jirard smiled a bit. “I believe them too!”

 

“You… do?”, PBG questioned.

 

Luckily, Jirard spoke for the both of them. “Of course! They’re our friends, and they wouldn’t be joking about something like this! So we need to support them and give them the benefit of the doubt, right?”

 

“I’m not quite sure even they know what’s going on, but, I do believe them for the most part,” Satch admitted. “Well, except for the girlfriend part- I’m guessing you don’t remember our conversation from the other day.”

 

Mai stared at him blankly.

 

“Oh come on, you don’t remember that?”, Jared questioned. “You were saying Holly looked cute, and-”

 

“I think just saying that I’m gay sums it up well enough,” Satch muttered.

 

A simple “oh.” Mai shrugged. “Well, okay, let’s just forget about that part- more importantly, I’m glad you guys are with us!”

 

“Of course, Mai!”, Jirard exclaimed. “We’re your friends.”

 

He emphasized that last part and cast a weird glance at Jared and Continue.

 

“As your friends, we’re just saying that we don’t think you three have the whole story and refraining from involvement until you do,” Paul clarified.

 

God, they were grating on Shane’s nerves. “You know, I can see why Ian thinks you’re snobs! We’re a team- hell, we’re a family! And we stick together, no matter what ramblings PBG and Mai are spitting out! Something’s going down here, and we are going to back them up with it and get to the bottom of this! All of us, together!”

 

Everyone stared at him for a solid minute before Jared made a strange noise. “We’re a family…”, he repeated. “You’re my family… I’m sorry, I just… I- I’m with you...” He cut himself off and turned away.

 

The smiles on the three interlopers’ faces- even Ian’s, which was a rare and precious sight- was bright enough to make Nick’s face soften at once. “Well, I can’t argue with that!”

 

Josh nodded. “We’ll help you, then.”

 

“We?”, Paul questioned.

 

His two partners glared at him. “We,” Nick repeated.

 

Paul sighed deeply. “We.”

 

A hand found its way on Shane’s shoulder. “Way to go, Shane! You really inspired them!”

 

Inspired?

 

Oh. Well, shit.

 

That never happened, he never inspired people! He was changing already, wasn’t he? The pink hair really was turning him into a protagonist, wasn’t it? Just like She Who Shall Not Be Named.

 

And just like Hana, apparently.

 

He was running off before he could fully process what was going on, and he was sure he heard footsteps following him.

  



	4. The Clock Stopped Ticking

Ian did not wake up in his bed. In fact, he wasn’t sure he woke up at all. He was just suddenly aware he was sitting on a couch in front of an old television set. Nothing but static, but he felt like he’d been staring at it for ages. 

 

It felt not like he was waking up, but that he was just suddenly aware he was there. That he knew where he was and was suddenly terrified of this.

 

Looking around, all he could see was black, and nothing at all familiar. This wasn’t his room, it wasn’t anywhere he knew at all, and his heart started pounding in his chest.

 

What kind of messed up dream was this? It didn’t feel like one, though. It felt surreal in a whole different way. 

 

More terrifyingly, he remembered he hadn’t been alone when he went to sleep. His roommate had been in the top bunk which was no longer above him, after all. “Jeff?”, he called out. 

 

Silence. Utter silence. His roommate wasn’t anywhere to be seen- of course he wasn’t, this strange place was too small to contain another person, he thought.

 

Emphasis on thought, because the more he looked around, the more he had no idea how big the room was. The walls were nothing but black, to the point he wasn’t sure there were walls to begin with. Maybe it was just an endless void? Maybe there wasn’t even a floor and he and the couch and the television weren’t just floating in the same bit of nothing?

 

With that in mind, he was a bit scared to step off the couch, but did so anyways. After all, for all he knew this was a dream after all and plunging into the abyss would only wake him- oh, there was a floor. Just as black as the rest of it, but still. 

 

He looked up and shielded his eyes from sudden light, but soon realized he couldn’t tell where said light came from. Sure as hell not the sun, and the slight buzz made him think perhaps it was fluorescent lighting, but he couldn’t see any bulbs. But there was definitely light, he just wasn’t sure where it was. And none of the glow in the dark star stickers Jeff insisted belonged on their ceiling- something he noticed with a pang of homesickness. 

 

It made him feel lonely all of a sudden. He was alone in the room- well, save for a potted plant that he was sure was fake anyways. That didn’t count as company but maybe it could if he got stir-crazy enough. At least naming it would give him something to do, but he’d save that for when he was sure where he was and that there was no way out. 

 

Alone, alone, alone- oh, look, the television was finally showing a picture. It was… Jeff? He was in their room, star stickers and all, and getting up. There was a lump in the bunk beneath him, one that stirred when Jeff shook him awake. 

 

They looked very much like Ian, to the point he started to think perhaps this was a memory from a strange perspective. The person sat up, barely avoiding hitting his head on the top bunk, and rolled out of bed. But, as the screen gave Ian a good look at his eyes, his heart stopped.

 

His eyes were blank, gaping holes. Pure black, as if he had no eyes at all. But Jeff didn’t notice, he just chattered on like it was Ian on any normal day.

 

Ian’s blood ran cold as the image faded into static. He wanted to scream.

 

* * *

The image of static was still burned into the back of Ian’s eyelids. That strange dream had gone on for what felt like an eternity, and when he “woke”, as much as he wanted to just hug Jeff and start sobbing, he found Jeff was already gone and he’d overslept. And then he found out he’d misses several weeks of his life and that dream sorta just got pushed to the back of his mind.

 

He kept telling himself it’d been a dream, nothing more, but the more he thought, the more he was sure it wasn’t. He had to have been somewhere as time passed him by and Hana slipped out of existence, right? 

 

Right?

 

But, as Shane ran out with the most horrified look on his face, Ian felt a strange sense of justification. This wasn’t just sad, this was downright terrifying. Funny? A bit, but it was slowly starting to scare the absolute shit out of him. 

 

Before he could think, he was running after him. He just wanted to say, “I’m scared too”, or “I understand”, or something. He wanted Shane to know he wasn’t alone, no matter what color his hair was. 

 

So, when Shane stopped to catch his breath, Ian slowly approached him. 

 

“Jirard, I’m fine,” Shane muttered, not turning to face him. “Just… leave me be.”

 

Ah right, Jirard, the most likely person by a long shot to run after Shane when he was upset. Probably had refrained from doing that just because Ian beat him to it. Probably a better person to comfort Shane than himself, who’d come only on impulse and a stroke of empathy. 

 

Even still, he was what Shane had, so he better be good enough. 

 

“Ian, actually,” he started, debating whether or not to put a hand on Shane’s shoulder. “I’ll leave you alone but, I just want you to know, I get it.”

 

Whipping around to face him, Shane practically glared at him, all red in the face. “Oh, you ‘get it’? Just because some random girl you barely care about disappeared, you get what it’s like to be afraid your friends will all be changed and hurt by some strange curse that’s fallen on you? You get what it’s like to fear your life will change for the worse of none of your own doing, all because of some person you’ve never met and you aren’t even sure was real in the first place?”

 

Wow, he’d worded that wrong, okay. “No, I could never relate to that. That’s its own kind of terrifying, but, I…”

 

He paused. If he explained, it’d feel more real, it’d be a permanent decision that what had happened was real, to a degree. And he had no idea if that would make it better or worse, but he had to find out. 

 

Shane glared as if mentally shouting for him to get on with it. So, Ian took a deep breath and continued. 

 

“I… didn’t forget that month or so I lost,” he started. “But I-”

 

It all came flooding back to him. The room, the television, the static beneath his skin, the constant fatigue…

 

More and more, the hallway spun around him- waiting, waiting at a black screen, praying for the static to turn to image so he could see everyone going happily on without him, so he could just see them all one last time oh please don’t forget about me why haven’t you noticed I’m gone-

 

“Ian!” 

 

A voice snapped him back to the present, along with a hand on his shoulder. Shane looked worried as all hell.

 

Slowly, Ian shook the thoughts out of his head. “I-I’m fine,” he half-lied.

 

“You kept muttering something along the lines of ‘please remember me’ over and over and started hyperventilating,” Shane huffed. “You are not fine.”

 

“I am not fine,” Ian admitted. “I-”

 

Another deep breath. He could do this without slipping back. “I was in this room. It was black and cramped and nothing was in there but a couch and a potted plant and a television. Someone was watching me but, I couldn’t leave, and the television…”

 

He could still see the static-filled scenes, of life going on without him, of the ones he loved being all alone with shaky sobs coming from them. Of that empty-eyed thing that pretended to be him over and over and over-

 

“Ian, you don’t have to say any more,” Shane assured him. “I think we should get you to the nurse; you look pale and frankly I’m worried about you.”

 

Nurse, yeah, probably a good idea. See what sort of affliction came from being certain you spent the past several weeks of your life stuck in an empty room.

 

Shane seemed so worried about him though, even though only a few minutes ago he’d been worried for himself so much. Wryly, Ian realized that he’d gotten him to stop worrying about his hair, at least for a moment, even if he’d done anything but calm him down.

 

“And,” he added, starting towards Creeps’ office. “He can check you out too, make sure you’re alright and see if there’s a proper diagnosis for pink hair.”

 

The same bitter laugh building in Ian’s throat escaped Shane’s. “Yeah, I’ll… go with you. For that.”

 

Hadn’t he been planning to go with him anyways? Well, either way, he was glad to not be entirely alone. All he could hope is that Shane felt the same. 


	5. Protagonist no. 2

Shane couldn’t help but worry about Ian- he was still shaking a bit from whatever memory he’d gotten caught in. If he hadn’t been positive that “Hana” was real before, he sure as hell was now- what other than some pink-haired girl who’d dropped off the face of the earth would make Ian Fucking MacLeod that scared? 

 

But, yeah, he was less vindicated than just scared shitless. Poor Ian hadn’t even been dating someone with pink hair, and yet he’d been dragged into a nightmare like that? Just for friendship? He could only imagine what Mai and PBG must be going through. 

 

Ian insisted he was fine, but, Shane doubted that more than a little. Something like that, he doubted Ian would be okay for a while to come. At very least, he needed to see the nurse. Possibly a lot more than that. 

 

But, as he opened the door to the nurse’s office and held it open for Ian, he noticed voices talking about something. He couldn’t quite see who it was, but the voices were distinct enough. 

 

“And has anything else strange happened to you since then?”, the nurse questioned. 

 

Someone else gave a strange little laugh. “Oh, gosh, uh, not really?,” they- no, Wallid, the voice was definitely Wallid- mused. “I mean, unless tripping into Tamashii counts as weird…”

 

It was easy to imagine Creeps nodding along. “Do you regularly trip into Miss Hiroka? Or into people who are not her?”

 

“No! I never trip into anyone!”, Wallid exclaimed. “I’m usually like, really coordinated!”

 

“Interesting…”, Creeps muttered. “And you’re certain this wasn’t a prank?”

 

An annoyed huff from Wallid. “But it’s black! How could it have gone from black to this overnight without me waking up?”

 

“You’re probably right... Well-”

 

Another voice broke through. Dry, unamused, unmistakably Jimmy’s. “Guys, Ian’s been standing at the door for like, a whole minute. Shane too, I think.”

 

“Ah, more patients.” Creeps sighed. “Well, come on in.”

 

As Shane stepped forward, he was struck by a thought: how had Jimmy seen them? They were standing behind a wall, they couldn’t see Jimmy, so how could he- 

 

That thought was cut off by another, by Wallid looking over at him. And, the first thing Shane noticed was the bright pink of Wallid’s hair, almost the same shade as his own- as Hers. 

 

The second they made eye contact, the two spent probably a solid minute staring at each other. A thousand thoughts ran through Shane’s mind. How? Why? Was it not just him? Anyone else? 

 

But, as Shane panicked, Wallid seemed relieved. “So… not just me…”

 

“Apparently not,” Ian muttered.

 

Jimmy was giggling in a way that made Shane kind of want to throw a pencil at him. “Wow, Gill! Pink’s a good look on you! It’s less cute than just… well makes you look like a pissed-off Clefae, but like-”

 

“This is serious!”, Shane shouted, and the smirk dropped off Jimmy’s face, replaced with a little pout. “You know what pink hair does to people, don’t you?”

 

“No, actually,” Wallid huffed. “That’s why I’m here!”

 

Shane had two options here: tell Wallid what he was in for, or just dismiss it and let him find out about being a Main Character for himself. 

 

Wallid was… well, not a kid- he was what, a year younger than Shane himself? But, he seemed pretty hopeful, not yet broken into cynicism like himself. But all this hesitation was surely just going to make things look even more suspicious… If Shane didn’t make up his mind soon he’d-

 

Ian seemed to note his hesitance and blurted something out to buy him time. “Okay, okay, Wallid, I get why you’re here,” he started, casting a weird look at Jimmy. “So, why’s Pretzel here?”

 

“I told you not to call me that,  _ Moosey _ !”, Jimmy exclaimed, stressing the borrowed insult. “And I’m here because I wasn’t about to let Wal be here confused and alone! That’s something only shitty boyfriends would do!”

 

A few confused blinks from Ian. “Boyfriend? Boy… friend…”

 

Jimmy rolled his eyes. “Yes. Boyfriend. Male that I am dating and who is dating me. In a gay way. We’ve been over this- hell, it’s almost been a month, figured you would have caught on considering all the PDA you keep complaining about.”

 

“Look, I don’t remember the past… oh, two months of my life? Or well,” Ian corrected. “I do remember them. I just remember spending them in an endless void with nothing but a potted plant and my own thoughts for company. In an incident related to why your boyfriend has pink hair, actually.”

 

Everyone just sort of stared at Ian, before Wallid piped up. “Wait, so you know why my hair’s all weird?”

 

Ian shrugged. “Maybe. Not sure but, it’s probably because of Hana Mizuno.”

 

Creeps cocked his head to the side. “Pardon?”

 

“Hana Mizuno, the seventh member of Hidden Block and/or ninth member of Normal Boots. Hiding god-knows-where because only me and Mai and Peebs remember her. She was what you’d call a ‘protagonist’- pink hair, weird things kept happening to her. I’d watch out for those.”

 

Wallid seemed just more confused. “Watch out? For this Hana girl?”

 

“For weird shi- things happening to you.” Ian caught his curse as Creeps gave him a disapproving, “don’t curse in front of the teachers” sort of look. 

 

A nod from Wallid, until he got all confused looking again. “I have… several questions.”

 

“As do I,” Creeps added. “Ian, you say you have no memory of the past two months, but have memories of a student who one else remembers?”

 

Starting to nod, Ian quickly corrected him. “Mai Sasaki and PeanutButterGamer also remember her, feel free to ask them.”

 

Some sort of thoughtful hum came from the nurse. “And did either of them experience the ‘endless void’ you mentioned?”

 

Ian just shrugged. “I dunno, didn’t ask them. But, they remember the past two months, just differently- with them including Hana. So I doubt they would remember… that…”

 

A small shudder ran through Ian, and Shane was reminded why he’d dragged Ian there in the first place. 

 

“Nurse McPasta,” he started, casting Ian an apologetic glance. “I believe that experience may have harmed Ian. Could you make sure he’s alright?”

 

Creeps nodded. “Of course, if that’s alright with Ian.”

 

“Probably for the best…”, Ian muttered. “But, make sure Shane’s alright too, with his pink hair thing…”

 

Shane expected to be told to sit down or something, but Creeps just shook his head. “I’ve been checking Mister Kanaan over for the past hour,” he explained. “Physically, he’s in perfect condition, so I’d expect the same to be true for him. So, you- oh, and Mister Kanaan and Whetzel- can go.”

 

That seemed fair enough. But, as he started to follow Jimmy and Wallid out the door, he found himself stopping. Was it really a good idea to leave Ian alone after that panic attack? Or well, alone save for someone asking him about the event that harmed him? 

 

“I- um, can I stay with Ian, though?”, he requested. “Remembering what happened to him seems upsetting, and I… I’m just worried…”

 

He was expecting to be told it would be fine, but Creeps just pulled a chair up beside the bed Ian had sat down on and motioned for him to sit down. 


	6. The One Where They Text a Lot

Gossip spread around Asagao quickly- it was just a fact of the school. Two people started dating? There was a couple name for them by the end of the day. Someone tripped in the hall? Jerks would be snickering about it for days. Someone came out as questioning their sexuality? Their name was PANut BItter GAYmer in everyone’s phone within the hour.

 

A similar fact of Normal Boots was that Continue knew pretty much everything that happened in the school the moment before it happened- something they attributed to both the newspaper and the Student Council. If any of their number was gonna hear something that happened, it would be from them, and if not, it’d be from one of the local gossips.

 

So, PBG was completely startled when he heard why Ian hadn’t shown up after running after Shane from Luke instead of from one of them or Mimi Santos.

 

A simple text read under his desk after Luke met his eyes as they darted towards the door for the millionth time: “Jimmy said he had a panic attack or something and went to the nurse and Shane was with him, that’s all I know.”

 

Panic attack? Not unbelievable, but he couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t that open and shut.

 

So, he decided to investigate further. Do some poking. Go ask Ian if-

 

“Where are you going, mister?”, Shizuka barked.

 

His heart stopped. “Bathroom?”

 

She sighed. “Take the pass, and if you’re gone for more than five minutes, I’m marking you truant.”

 

He sat back down and the teacher huffed. “Thought so.”

 

Alright, new plan: text Ian.

 

“Hey, dude, you okay?”

 

He waited for a good ten minutes, but nothing. He looked again: the text was read, but that was all.

 

Alright, new new plan: text Jeff.

 

“Hey, dude, is Ian okay?”

 

Jeff, the absolute angel, texted back within two minutes. “I don’t know, he was still asleep when I left this morning and I haven’t seen him all day! Jimmy said he had a panic attack but I can’t get out of class to check up on him.”

 

“Dude same,” he replied as Shizuka started on some tangent about how to cook eggs. “I’m worried!”

 

It took longer for Jeff to reply that time, so in the meantime, PBG brainstormed new people to ask. Luke said Jimmy was the one who told him about Ian, right? So he’d be better off getting right to the source!

 

So he sent a quick text to Jimmy: “Hey do you know what’s up with Ian?”

 

The reply came too quick. Suspiciously quick. “I’m bored in class” quick.

 

“It’s a long story.”

 

He held back a sigh. “Can you at least try?”

 

His answer was a selfie of himself and Wallid. It took a moment for PBG to notice why this was an answer, but once he did, he texted Wallid right away.

 

“Dude what the heck happened to your hair???”

 

Wallid took a moderate amount of time to answer, just long enough for PBG to worry a bit about Jeff, who hadn’t texted back yet.

 

“It’s pink now no idea why. Ian said it was something about some girl named Hana?”

 

Well, he guessed that’s what he’d said about Shane… PBG had no idea if it was true now, though; why would there be two protagonists for the one that’d vanished? Were there others?

 

A sigh escaped his mouth. God, this was just getting more complicated! And he had no idea where to go with it, really. How could he help Hana when he didn’t have the foggiest idea what had happened, why, or how any of this other stuff tied in? Like, Mai was apparently a member of Normal Boots now? And Jared was acting all weird about everything. Plus the now two cases of pink hair and really he was at a complete loss.

 

Come on, he told himself. Just think! He’d watched detective movies, he’d played Professor Chipton and Mace Attorney! Where could he start investigating when literally nothing of the supposed victim remained but memories?

 

His thought process was interrupted, as it often was, by the buzzing of his phone. It was Jeff, finally, with a quick apology. “Sorry, pop quiz!”

 

“No problem dude,” he assured his friend. “So I asked Jimmy what happened with Ian and he just told me Wallid’s hair was pink now.”

 

A small pause in which he could practically hear Jeff’s deep sighing. “What does that have to do with it?”

 

Okay, to be fair, that wouldn’t make any sense at all to someone who didn’t know the whole story- something way too complicated to explain over text. “I’ll tell you later,” he typed. “But have you heard from Ian?”

 

“Actually yes,” Jeff responded a bit too quickly. “Just in the group chat, said he wanted to call an Emergency Meeting after class.”

 

Emergency Meeting? Yeah, this sure was an emergency, alright, and a meeting might really help get things in order. At least, if any of them believed Ian, which without a Shane to push the idea might be hard.

 

Little dots in a white bubble indicated Jeff still had something to say, though, so he waited until another message popped up to say more. “Since you’re worried about him too, you could come!”

 

“To a Hidden Block meeting?”

 

“Yeah! I mean, we’re not really exclusive,” Jeff explained. “And I don’t think anyone would have a problem with it since you’re still friends with like, all of us!”

 

He couldn’t help but smile a bit. That sounded like a good idea, really.

 

“Yeah, I’ll be there!”

 

The reply was almost instantaneous. “Great! And you can tell me what Wallid’s hair has to do with Ian being sick!”

 

Yeah, that’d come up alright, among other things. Come to think of it, he should probably extend that invitation to Mai as well, right?

 

Did he have her number? He looked real quick and apparently yes, yes he did.

 

“Hey Mai, Hidden Block’s gonna talk about the Hana thing after class wanna come?”

 

She replied as soon as Shizuka stopped paying attention. “Already got plans. Satch and Jared wanted to help catch me up to what I’d missed in this non-Hana world.”

 

Oh. Well, that made sense. Maybe he could ask Jeff to help catch him up too. If he'd missed Mai joining Normal Boots who knows what else he didn't know!

 

But, as he went to ask Jeff that, he hesitated, realizing something kind of funny. He'd texted all of Hidden Block save for one so far that day.

 

Well, might as well make it a complete set! He sent Caddy just a little “I've texted the rest of your club today didn't want to leave you out, hope you're having a good day!” with a smiley face.

 

That didn't even get a reply.


	7. Peebs Missed a Lot

As they went into their respective meetings- or well, Mai’s thing wasn’t really a meeting- PBG and Mai exchanged ideas on what exactly had happened in this world that they didn’t remember.

 

“What if I’m dating someone?”, Mai mused over text. “What would I even do?”

 

For a brief moment, PBG recalled walking in on Mai and Jared playing DnD together and flirting in his world. So Mai wasn’t with Jared in her version of things? That seemed unfair- she’d been so happy about getting to know him before! But, maybe then he shouldn’t mention it, shouldn’t get her hopes up.

 

“I dunno…” Another thought struck him. “What if I’m dating someone? What would I tell them about Hana?”

 

He didn’t get to ask for an answer, as the club door was thrown open, Jeff staring at him with a little smile. “Hey, why were you just standing outside?”, he questioned. “You weren’t there too long, were you?”

 

“Uh, no, I was just talking to Mai,” he explained. “So, um… is the meeting starting?”

 

A voice- Jimmy’s- called from deeper in the room. “Nah, Ian’s still like, probably still asleep. Can’t start without him!”

 

Alright, so maybe he had time to ask about what had happened while he was “gone”. But, as he took a breath to start, Luke cut him off.

 

“So, like, Ian told us you and him and Mai came from another dimension or something?”

 

He nodded. “Uh, I mean, I wouldn’t go that far, I just remember the last few months kinda differently than you guys…”

 

Jeff pulled out a notebook, flipped through it until arriving at the needed page, and cleared his throat. “Um, I- I wrote down everything I could think of that happened since the beginning of the school year, tell me if you remember any of it…”

 

Wait… they weren’t even gonna question it? “You’re just... going with this?”, he asked, incredulous. 

 

A collective shrug. “Well it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that’s happened even this week,” Caddy muttered. 

 

“Like, I mean,” Wallid interjected, pointing at his very vibrant pink hair. “I don’t have a better explanation.”

 

“So might as well help you!”, Jeff finished. “Now, story time, I guess!”

 

PBG sat down and looked at him, waiting to hear it all. Jeff cleared his throat again.

 

“Oh god, let’s see…” Jeff scanned his list for a moment before settling on something. “Er, Mai joined Normal Boots…”

 

“Yeah, already figured that out.”

 

Jeff looked a tiny bit disappointed someone had beat him to that revelation. “Oh. I… um, I’m Student Council President now!”, he exclaimed. 

 

He was? He’d run but… “You beat Paul?”

 

A bit of a laughing scoff from Caddy. “I know, right? But even still, no one cares about us little guys.”

 

An immediate, thoughtless protest rose from his lips. “I care about you!”

 

“Wow, thank you Peebs,” Jimmy deadpanned. “Couldn’t guess from you being here.”

 

Peebs? That was… something he’d never heard Jimmy call him. Too familiar for someone he knew so little. Kinda strange. 

 

But that might come up later! Back to Jeff! He had so many questions… 

 

“Okay, how’s the soccer season going?”, he questioned, and Jeff’s face fell. 

 

“Let’s just say we didn’t do so hot.”

 

“Darn.” He didn’t have a broken leg here, so he could have played if they hadn’t lost already!

 

Noting his disappointment, Jeff scanned the page again. “U-uh, Normal Boots won the tournament!”

 

He just shrugged. Jeff frowned. “You don’t care?”

 

“I mean, it doesn’t mean anything if I don’t remember having fun against you all!”

 

Jeff smiled a bit and scanned the page again. “Um…”

 

“Ooh, I’m dating Wallid!”, Jimmy blurted out. 

 

Why… was Jimmy all of a sudden acting like they were friends? They knew each other, sure, but he seemed way too familiar with him. He couldn’t just ask that, though, so he just nodded. “Good for you.”

 

Wallid laughed a bit. “I know, took him long enough to spit it out,” he mused. “Is that what he did with you?”

 

What was that supposed to mean, what he did with him? 

 

“Eh, nah, he asked me out!”, Jimmy corrected, and PBG’s brain just stopped working entirely. 

 

“Wh-what?”

 

Jimmy gave him a confused look. “You… remember? The Flower Festival last year! You didn’t wanna go alone, so you asked me. I mean, I guess I was the one who asked if it was a date, but you said it was! So I count that as you asking me.”

 

A date? Slowly, it clicked together. “Wait, did we… date?”, he asked. 

 

“You… you said you’d forgotten the past three months!”, Jimmy suddenly exclaimed. “Not most of last year too!”

 

It all hit him at once. Hana didn’t exist now. Hana had never existed at all here. That wouldn’t have just changed the past school year, that would have changed a good portion of his life. He’d never have set his heart on her, never decided she was The One, never have spent their years apart pining and refusing to even look anyone else like he had her. 

 

Was that who he’d been without Hana? Out there, actually going on dates and figuring out he wasn’t straight and being open about it by the time he was starting his second year? He’d just finally figured that out in the middle of last year, and it’d taken him until almost the end to actually tell anyone!

 

A hand on his shoulder- Jeff’s. “Hey, are you alright?”

 

“Y-yeah, I didn’t mean to yell,” Jimmy added. “L-look, it’s fine if you forgot, it’s over! It’s not important.”

 

“No, it is,” he assured him. “I… I’ve never had a relationship with a guy, let alone a lasting relationship with anyone! From what I remember, I was so hung up on a childhood friend that I never considered dating anyone else, and I didn’t see her again until the beginning of this year!”

 

“Hana?”, Wallid questioned. 

 

His heart skipped a few beats. “D-do you remember her?”, he questioned. 

 

Wallid shook his head. “Sorry, Ian just told us about her. Said she was like me.”

 

“Yeah, she had pink hair when I saw her again. When she started coming to Asagao. Everyone said she was a protagonist, and I could see it. Things just seemed to revolve around her- or well, maybe that was just me being lovesick.”

 

Luke nodded. “Yeah, that’s how that can feel. Can’t stop looking at her until you start to feel sick about it, right?”

 

That sounded familiar. An exact description of the first day of term, actually. 

 

He wanted to cry. He’d found her and lost her and found her again only to lose her once more. And, in her place, a full life without her he couldn’t remember at all, a boyfriend he didn’t remember having. It was the worst of both worlds. 

 

But, before the tears could fall, he found himself in a hug. “We’re here for you, okay?”, Jeff questioned. “Even if you’re not a member anymore, you’ll always have a place with Hidden Block.”

 

Was that some sort of joke? That was just a joke, right? He’d founded Normal Boots, why would he have ever been with Hidden Block?

 

He laughed. “Good one, guys.”

 

No one else was laughing. 


	8. Ian's Void Land

The television was all static, but Ian couldn’t draw his eyes from it. All he could do was change the channel.

 

It was all repeats, it seemed. He recognized every scene from the bizarre serial he called his life. Not a show he was fond of rewatching, but it seemed this tv never picked up Enigmatic Science Show 4000, so it was all he really had.

 

He turned the dial past embarrassing memories and mundane ones until he found a fairly nice one: his first Hidden Block meeting. Wallid and Jimmy had practically forced him to come- alright, they did force him, there was no “practically” about it, he’d been literally dragged there. But, turns out they’d welcomed him with open arms and warmth he’d never really felt before.

 

But, the longer he lingered on it, the more the memory made him lonely. He wanted to see them again, he wanted to get out of that dark room and see the light those dorks practically radiated again. Was that sappy? Really, he didn’t care. He’d be as sappy as he wanted.

 

Turning the dial again, he came across a new show, finally. But, it was boring: just a swirling void of colors against darkness. It looked like what a computer would generate while listening to music on it, but without any music, it was just kind of bland and dull. There was no noise at all, even, save for what was either faint breathing or static.     

 

Even so, it was strangely entrancing to watch. He kind of wanted to watch more, but that idea vanished as he was shaken awake.

 

* * *

 

“Ian, hey, you need to wake up,” a voice told him. Voice with accent, had called him Ian, and even in a sleepy haze that was enough for him to tell who it was.

 

“Shane…”, he muttered. “Why are you-?”

 

“Still here?”, Shane finished.

 

Not feeling like saying any more words, Ian just nodded. Shane just shrugged in response. “Didn’t want to go back to class.”

 

“Fair enough.” But then why did Shane wake him up? If they weren’t going back to class, and he didn’t remember Creeps putting him on any medicine he needed to take, then why did he need to wake?

 

That explanation came as his phone was shoved in his face. Texts asking him why he wasn’t at the meeting yet.

 

“Hidden Block meeting…”, he muttered. “How was I supposed to know about that, exactly?” He’d hoped Wallid and Jimmy might have at least tried to help explain him a bit.

 

But, Shane looked away oddly, and Ian got a bit suspicious. Maybe he should look at those texts…

 

Among them he found some in the group chat that were definitely sent while he was sleeping, judging by the time. Sent by him, allegedly. Asking for an emergency Hidden Block meeting and explaining the basics of what happened.

 

Well, there was only one explanation: “Shane, how did you get in my phone.”

 

Shane scoffed aggressively. “I didn’t get in your phone!”

 

“Oh, and these texts just sent themselves?”, he countered.

 

“Apparently so,” Shane insisted, not making eye contact.

 

Ian frowned as he looked through the messages. Everyone, even Caddy was really sweet about and promised to meet right after class and help him. Shane, he'd done this to help him, to make sure he wouldn't have to explain this all himself or alone, right?

 

In other words, he'd have to get up, wouldn’t he?

 

Well, not until he got an answer. “Shane, tell me how you got my phone password or I’m telling the others you hacked into my phone for the sole purpose of helping me proving that you do indeed have a heart.”

 

After a good minute of staring at him, Shane sighed. “Jeff told me when I asked, said I needed to get your parents’ numbers for Creeps and didn’t want to wake you up,” he admitted.

 

Alright, now the question was how did _Jeff_ know his password, but that was kind of beside the point. Ian forced himself up and started to ask Creeps if it was alright to leave before realizing he wasn’t there.

 

“Hey, where’s-”

 

Shane shrugged. “Dunno but he said you were free to go. So, go, have fun or whatever it is you guys do at those.”

 

That was almost reassuring. Almost. But, as Ian headed towards the Hidden Block clubroom, he was stopped by a sudden shout.

 

“Ian! Ian, wait up!”

 

Mai rushed up to him, panting and out of breath.

 

He stared for a moment before continuing to walk. “What’s up?”, he questioned.

 

“Well, I figured out why I’m in Normal Boots!”, Mai exclaimed cheerfully.

 

Other than she’d just ended up taking Hana’s place? He cocked his head to the side and gave her a questioning look.

 

“So, like, you know Mimi Santos?”, Mai started. “So, like, apparently in this world she’s Paul’s sister.”

 

“Paul’s… sister?”, Ian repeated. They looked a lot alike, but he was fairly certain they weren’t related in the slightest from what he remembered.

 

“I know, right?” Mai sounded just as shocked as he was. “I couldn’t believe it either! But, like, apparently since I knew her Paul knew me, so when they needed someone for puzzles he recommended me and I miraculously didn’t suck!”

 

That all sounded… contrived. Like it’d been specifically arranged just to get Mai into Normal Boots. Too good to be true.

 

And a thought occurred to him: maybe did someone want Mai in Normal Boots, and that’s why she’d replaced Hana here? Was that why this was happening?

 

Apparently, that thought had made him zone out a bit, because he didn’t realize he’d stopped listening to Mai until he was in the Hidden Block clubroom and that train of thought was entirely derailed by a strange sobbing.

 

PBG was crying on the floor, hugging Jeff close as Jimmy awkwardly attempted to comfort him. Not unusual in itself; replace Jimmy with Dean and he’d seen this scene after almost every losing soccer match. And probably he was crying over Hana or the situation in general (something Ian was quite tempted to try), but that wasn’t the weird part.

 

No, the weird part was that he had a Hidden Block jacket on.

 

He had to ask about that part. “Uh, Peebs? What’s with the jacket?”

 

A sniffle. PBG looked up at him. “O-oh, Ian!” He smiled a bit. “Um… this’ll sound weird but, this was mine, I guess.”

 

“The jacket?” PBG nodded.

 

“So you were in Hidden Block?” PBG nodded again.

 

God, this was giving Ian a headache. “Why… were you in Hidden Block?”, Ian questioned. “You founded Normal Boots!”

 

Mai raised her hand eagerly as if waiting to be called on, but didn’t wait. “Ooh, Satch and Jared said they founded it here!”

 

“Yeah, and PBG ended up only joining them after they needed someone else last minute for the tournament last year when Continue got suspended,” Jeff explained. “And, well, we couldn’t blame him for wanting to take that chance!”

 

Read: Jeff was still rather bitter about PBG leaving them. Ian could read his roommate like a book, and he could very easily tell when he was biting back deeper feelings.

 

But, Ian found himself only sighing. “Alright, alright. Um… meeting stuff… right?” God, why had Shane done this to him?


	9. Jeff is Actually Helpful

The meeting wasn’t terribly informative, as far as Hidden Block meetings went. Most everything had gotten taken care of pre-meeting. Really all Jeff had left to do was show Ian the list he’d made for PBG and answer any further questions. Which was probably good, considering he was honestly terrified of saying something wrong to his dear friends, and even more scared that there wasn’t anything at all he could say.

 

Luckily for that, Ian had been strangely quiet after the meeting, right up until they were about to go to bed. Then, he just started staring up at the ceiling blankly instead of getting in the bottom bunk.

 

Jeff had to ask. Bite his tongue and engage conversation. “Ian, are you okay?”

 

He shook his head. “It- it’s a long story.”

 

“You don’t have to explain,” Jeff assured him. “You’ve been through a lot today.”

 

But, Ian just shook his head today. “That’s not… quite it…”

 

There was something else? Jeff was kind of scared to ask, but he knew he had to offer.

 

“You… wanna talk about it?”

 

A deep sigh. “Y-yeah. Um, gosh… I… last night, I guess, I had this dream,” Ian started. “I was in this room, completely empty except for a television and a potted plant, and everything was black. I didn't know where I was, and I couldn't… I couldn't stop looking at this television. And I kept seeing life going on without me- with this thing that looked like me, but it wasn't! Everyone thought it was, but it… it wasn't me… I can't explain it, but I knew it was just… soulless.”

 

So, was that what Ian thought had been in his place in those missing weeks of his? Is that what had happened to him? “Ian,” Jeff started. “I- I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

 

Shrugging, Ian sat down on his bed. “I mean, it’s not your place to apologize. But, thanks.”

 

“Um, a-anything else?”, Jeff asked after a moment of strained silence. 

 

Ian shuddered a bit. “Um... sometimes I'd see things I couldn't understand too, on the television in there. I'd see myself, or my friends, but we’d be somewhere I didn't recognize. In a weird house, or sitting in front of a camera, or in this awful cave… and sometimes I'd be happy, or things would be normal, but sometimes I'd be terrified.”

 

Jeff hesitated. Some of that sounded, at least a little tiny bit, familiar. 

 

But he could see that fear he talked about in Ian’s face. He looked on the verge of tears. And, if there was a chance what he had to say could help, he'd take it. 

 

“I… I know what you mean, sort of.”

 

“You've seen it too?”, Ian questioned

 

“Not the television, no,” Jeff corrected. “But I know what you mean about the weird dreams. Um, a few years ago, I started having this dream. I'm always with you and Barry- you know, from the Strikers?- and we're fighting this monster. Or, like, a lot of them, I'm never quite sure. And-”

 

Ian shook his head. “Stop. I- I saw that one too.”

 

“The same dream?”

 

A nod. “You died first, then me, and Barry begged not to go out like that.”

 

That was the same one, alright. It made him feel sick to remember having to watch helplessly as the others fell. And knowing that wasn't just a weird recurring nightmare but something Ian had had too well, that was far worse. 

 

“Y-you know what this means, right?”, Jeff questioned. 

 

Ian nodded before shuttering. “God, was I seeing into other people’s dreams? I'm lucky I didn't see anything-”

 

“No, that's not what I meant! It means it's not a dream, right?”

 

A shrug. “Nah, definitely a dream. I was just seeing into your weird nightmare!”

 

“If you were seeing people’s dreams, then did you see anything like, that could only have come from someone else’s mind?”

 

Another shrug. “It all runs together. Only remembered that one because you mentioned it. It's hard to know either way. I mean, it could be another alternate reality or whatever, but it'd be simpler if I was just seeing your dream.”

 

That didn't sound simpler at all. But, as he sighed and hugged his pillow, he realized something. 

 

“Wait, okay, so it was us and Barry, right?”

 

“Jeff, it’s like, eleven and we have class tomorrow. Let Barry sleep.”

 

“But-”

 

“It's really nothing. Just sleep.”

 

Jeff just laid there for a good while without sleeping at all. 

 

“Ian, I-”

 

He was cut off by a sudden clatter. The ladder on the bunk bed was hitting against the side of the bed and in the soft glow of ceiling starlight, he could see Ian climbing up there. 

 

“Ian, can the top bunk even hold two people?”

 

“Who cares, neither of us are getting to sleep alone.”

 

“Fair enough, but wouldn't it be better to sleep on the floor? Or on your bunk so we’ll not fall as far if it does break?”

 

“I wanna…” Ian finished the rest of whatever he said in a mutter. 

 

That was… unhelpful. “Wanna want?”

 

“I… I want to see the star stickers,” Ian repeated, voice suddenly shaky. “I was in that room with the television for so long- whole time I couldn't remember, and I couldn't stop thinking about how much I missed your-your stupid star stickers!”

 

Was Ian sobbing? It sure sounded like it. Jeff sat up and pulled his friend into a hug. Yep, definitely sobbing. 

 

“You're home now,” he assured Ian softly. “And I have some of those stickers left if you want to put them over your bunk.”

 

A broken up laugh. Ian curled into his arms. “A-alright. And can you not tell anyone about this?”

 

“Cross my heart.”

 

Ian just buried his face in his shoulder and they stayed there for a moment before someone knocked at their door. With a deep sigh, Ian climbed out of his arms and down the ladder to open it.

 

Jeff tried to look down the bunk to see who it was, but as soon as they started talking, the need for that was eliminated. He’d know PBG’s voice anywhere.

 

“Uh, hey, weird question, but mind if I stay over tonight?”, PBG asked. “It’s just been… weird, and it looks like my roommate’s gone or something, and McJones is… well, let’s just say ‘busy’, and I really, really don’t want to be alone right now.”

 

Roommate? But PBG hadn’t ever had one… Seems he’d left a few gaps in his explanation, hadn’t he? Well, now probably wasn’t the time to fill them in. Seems he had some more comforting to do.

 

“Of course!”, Jeff called down. He climbed down the ladder as well, pulling down his galaxy-print blanket to wrap around PBG as he put down his own blanket and pillows.

 

The gesture alone made PBG smile. “Thanks, Jeff… You’re the best…”

 

With a deep sigh, he flopped down on the floor, hugging the blanket close. “Sorry, I’m just… overwhelmed. I’m so confused, and I don’t know where to start with sorting it all out.”

 

After a moment of musing it over, Jeff came up with something proper to say. “You know, I’m sure even if your brother’s busy, he’d be happy to talk to you!” 

 

PBG shook his head. “No… I thought about it but, I mean, I don’t wanna have to sort through an entirely different childhood too! Just the past year’s been enough. It’s too much to take in!”

 

“Well, we can ease you into it!”, Jeff assured him. “Just a little bit at a time!”

 

A groan. “But, we have class and the radio show and-”

 

“Radio… show?” Jeff cut him off with a confused glance. “Was that a thing?”

 

For a moment, PBG just stared off into space before shaking his head like trying to get water out of his ear. “Sorry, I… remembered something weird for a minute. Dunno where that came from. Don’t think there was a radio show? Ugh.”

 

Ian, who’d been oddly quiet, suddenly got a strange look in his eyes. It was the same sort of shining glint that Jimmy or Jared would so often get. A plot.

 

“What?”, Jeff questioned, elbowing Ian. 

 

“Well, Creeps knows about our issue,” Ian mused.

 

Grinning, PBG nodded. “Go on.”

 

“So I’m sure he’d allow us a pass from class for a day or two to allow us to get our bearings.”

 

PBG clapped his hands together. “Perfect! And Jeff can skip too so he can help us out!”

 

His face fell a bit. “I- I don’t think I can do that…”, he muttered. “Student Council Presidents can’t just skip class!”

 

A dry laugh. “Oh, I considered that,” Ian assured him. “But, I’m positive a Student Council President helping underclassmen who are unwell and disoriented would be allowed, even lauded!”

 

“Fair point,” he conceded. “Should we invite Mai to our day in too?”

 

“Yeah! It’ll be fun!”, PBG exclaimed. 

 

Ian stifled a yawn. “I-in the morning. It’ll be fun in the morning.”

 

Despite Ian starting to climb back up to the top bunk, Jeff quickly had a better idea and pulled all the pillows and the comforter down and spread them on the floor. 

 

Climbing back down, Ian raised an eyebrow. “What are you-?”

 

“We can sleep under the stars!”, Jeff excitedly suggested. 

 

Despite not saying a word, the fact Ian was hiding his face was enough to tell him he was happy with the idea.

 

“Oh, yeah!”, PBG exclaimed. “That’ll be cool!” He rolled onto the blanket and pulled Jeff down beside him.

 

Ian joined them, only barely touching Jeff’s other side, while PBG clung onto his arm for dear life.

 

As Jeff stared at the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, he found he wanted to cry. The two people he loved most were hurting, and he didn’t even know if he could help.

 

But, as he stared at PBG’s half asleep smile, he found his own smile returning. Even if he wasn’t sure he could help, he’d sure as hell try to protect that smile that was so precious to him. 

 

So he pulled PBG closer and closed his eyes. Maybe if he just tried to ignore things in this sleepy stupor, he could just imagine they were cuddling.


	10. Shane is a Fucking Liar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please thank Jasper (happy bday bro) for this chapter because I was genuinely considering quitting the story all together but he told me that yes people do in fact enjoy this so I wrote this entire chapter in one night. Enjoy.

Mai couldn’t believe herself for turning down an opportunity to skip class and watch movies with friends (okay “friends”, only one she’d call a non-airquotes friend would be PBG). But, she also couldn’t stand the idea of standing back and doing nothing all day, she had to know more! She had to ask Mimi since when she’d been Paul’s sister! She had to ask Shane why he was so on their side! She had to ask Jared if he was single! Come on, Mai, she told herself, you can do this!

 

But, she nearly broke down crying when she woke up in an empty dorm. Hana was still gone, she was still alone, and her heart ached. 

 

Hana wouldn’t want her to wallow in misery, though. She’d want her to stand tall and get to the bottom of everything and enjoy being in Normal Boots, while she was at it!

 

Unfortunately, being in Normal Boots would do her very little good that day in Shizuka’s class, since only one member was even there and he was the one who hated the guts of everyone who was not named Jirard Khalil. 

 

But, well, Shane had stuck up for them yesterday, so maybe he’d still help! It was worth asking while Shizuka was passed out on her own desk, right?

 

“Hey, Shane,” Mai stagewhispered.

 

Shane turned to look at her with a glare. His hair was still bright pink, likely accounting for the shadows under his eyes and the irritability- though come to think of it, both were common everyday Shane fixtures. 

 

He didn’t say a word to her, but Mai went on. “So, like, think you could help me investigate the whole Hana thing this-”

 

“No.”

 

Mai blinked. “But you were all for helping us yesterday!”

 

“That was yesterday,” Shane muttered. “Besides, did I look like I had a choice?”

 

Mai wasn’t sure that was the whole story if she took into account the bits and pieces she’d gotten from Ian. “You had a choice whether to stay with Ian!”, she countered.

 

A scoff, but Shane was clearly hiding his face. “Please, like you would turn down a chance to skip class.”

 

“Oh, is that all?”, Mai countered. 

 

Blank silence, and then Shane suddenly blurted something out: “Caddy made me look after him.”

 

“What?”

 

“Jim ‘Caddicarus’ Caddick forced me to look after his unconscious frenemy, alright?”, Shane snapped. “Now shut up and be quiet so we don’t wake Shizuka and make her try to do actual lessons.”

 

Groaning, Mai decided to ask Ian if he knew whether Shane was being an annoying liar, because if so, she had a lot of questions for Caddy.

 

“Ian, question about your ex”, she texted quickly.

 

An almost instant response. “Which one?”

 

“There’s more than one?”, she questioned.

 

“There’s like four you’re gonna have to be more specific”, he clarified. 

 

“Caddy”

 

It took Ian a moment too long to answer. “Surprisingly he isn’t one of them”

 

“Really?” She blinked. Was her entire life a lie? “I always thought you guys had a bitter breakup and that’s why you acted like that!!!”

 

“Nah he just hates me the old fashioned way”, Ian replied. 

 

Okay, okay, so she was wrong. But that left what, four exes unaccounted for? She thought she knew everyone who’d dated someone in the school! “So who are your exes then???”

 

It took Ian far too long to answer with a string of almost meaningless words. “2 / 5 of hidden block a guy from the soccer team and someone else”

 

She hissed under her breath. “Stop being vague I want specifics!!!”

 

The reply oozed smugness and she could practically hear Ian saying the words as she read them. “Thats all youre getting. ever. youll be kept awake at night with the knowledge that you dont know who my exes are and i will be perfectly content with knowing that it is my fault.”

 

Mai wanted to strangle him. She wasn’t even planning on answering until he texted her once more.

 

“Soooo what did you want to know about caddy?”

 

Oh. Right. Point of the conversation. “Shane said he made him help you yesterday”

 

“Shane’s a fucking liar,” Ian assured her. “Hes being helpful because he feels like it shockingly”

 

A little giggle. “Hey, Shane!”, she called softly. 

 

He didn’t look up from his sketchbook but just grunted.

 

“Ian says you’re a fucking liar,” she reported.

 

Mimi Santos snickered a bit as Shane let out a hiss of a breath. “What does it matter, I don’t want to help you!”, he exclaimed.

 

“Because we need you!”, Mai countered rather loudly.

 

Before Shane could respond, Shizuka suddenly jerked up and looked around at the classroom, eyes bleary and ringed with shadow. “Oh, right…”, she muttered. “Uh… What’re we on, like, Lylat Wars?”

 

“I believe we are studying the X Parasite,” Kakusu corrected from the back of the room.

 

Shizuka seemed to still be trying to shake herself awake, and out of the corner of her eye, Mai noticed Mimi seemed to be frantically texting someone. “Uh, right. Open your books to page whatever.”

 

Mai flipped her book open to an entirely random page and tried to pretend to listen, but she was distracted by Mimi’s annoyed huff and a note suddenly and violently placed on her book.

 

It was in pink glittery gel pen with big loopy letters: a hallmark of one Mimi Santos- wait, was she Mimi Ritchey here? Or was Paul now Paul Santos? Well, regardless, it was Mimi’s doing, but, at least, much more helpful than the last note she’d given her. “Come with me at lunch and unblock me on your phone, I can help you.”

 

Mimi? Help? Did those concepts even belong in the same sentence? Well, she supposed maybe Paul’s Sister Mimi might be a bit different than Actual Bitch Mimi Santos. 

 

So, no unblocking, but when the lunchbell rang, she followed Mimi.


	11. The Ritchey Family is Full of Little Shits

Mimi led Mai through the school, and she slowly grew more uneasy. But, she didn't feel like she was about to be executed, at least. Potentially sentenced, perhaps, but not like Mimi would decapitate her.

 

And, as they arrived at the library, Mai started to wish she’d just gone to lunch. Damn, if this didn’t work out, she’d lost her best chance to talk to all of Normal Boots at once for nothing! Plus, it was Taco Tuesday. 

 

They sat at an empty table and Mai’s stomach growled while Mimi looked around with clear annoyance. “They’ll be here soon,” she assured Mai.

 

“They?”

 

A nod. “Yes, they. The human disasters.”

 

“Continue?”, Mai questioned, blurting out the first group Mimi would call that.

 

Another nod. “Who else?”

 

“Someone who’d been more willing to help me in the first place” was her first instinct, but Mai bit her tongue. Nick and Josh had come around, at least, and she trusted they could drag Paul into agreement. 

 

So, as they waited and Mai started to pray that she still had a granola bar in her purse, she decided to distract herself by getting something answered for her.

 

“So, why’d you do it?”, she asked Mimi.   
  


Mimi whipped back to look at her. “Do what?”, she snipped. 

 

“Get me in Normal Boots.”

 

Confusion all across that stupid face. “Huh?”

 

“Well, clearly you know about the freaky deaky timeline shit,” Mai explained. “So you know I don’t remember why you did it. So tell me, what, did I have some dirt on you that you wanted me to keep quiet about?”

 

A hand rushed to cover Mimi’s mouth and barely didn’t cover the hints of a blush forming. “I- I was just helping my friend, who’d been lonely since her old roommate transferred!”, she lied.

 

“Was it a bribe?”, Mai pressed.

 

Groaning, Mimi elaborated with fake cheeriness. “You’d seemed to decide that your one and only friend was Kakusu, so I needed to help get you more!” 

 

Translating from Miminese, that meant that Mimi thought Mai was about to steal her best friend so she distracted her with the friends she’d always wanted so badly to get in with. Classic Mimi move. 

 

But, well, Kakusu, really? Had Mai been that close to her? She barely knew the girl, to be honest! On the other hand, without Hana, maybe they would have ended up closer! She was better than Mimi and most of the other girls on the volleyball team, at least. 

 

So she just rolled her eyes and continued waiting with Mimi until finally, Continue showed up with- was it? Could it be?

 

“Food!”, she exclaimed, running to grab a taco off the tray Josh was carrying before he could stop her. “Ohmygooood, you guys are the best!”

 

Josh just stared at her for a moment before sitting down and taking a taco off Paul’s plate. “I know. Wasn’t your taco, but I know.”

 

Perhaps Mai should have taken more care not to eat an entire taco in fifteen seconds around Normal Boots, but eh, she was already in with them, what did she have to lose?

 

“So,” she started after she’d turned the taco into an ex-taco. “What do you want?”

 

A green jacket was unceremoniously thrown in her face. “Well, first of all, this came in,” Paul muttered.

 

Mai had a brief moment of realization. She was holding her very own Normal Boots jacket. Hers. She was a member of Normal Boots and this was her jacket and oh god she was shaking, this was actually happening!

 

But, no, she could scream about that later. This was for Hana! She didn’t want to be here without her Hana.

 

“Wh-what else?”, she pressed.

 

“Well, we’ve been talking,” Paul started. “And, well-”

 

“This is all super cool and exciting!”, Nick suddenly blurted out. “You’re like, from another dimension, and you brought all sorts of craziness with you and a big mystery to solve! It’s like Return to the Tomorrow or Doctor When!”

 

“Ian’s the time traveller,” she corrected under her breath.

 

Shrugs all around. “Close enough,” Josh deadpanned. “Either way, it’s cool as hell.”

 

In the middle of everything, it was far from cool, but she supposed whatever got them on her side worked. “Alright, alright.”

 

“So we wanna help you figure this all out!”, Nick exclaimed. 

 

“And by we,” Paul clarified, “I mean I’ve been outvoted in not being sure about all this. Hell, even Mimi wants to help you.”

 

Mimi… right, Mai had a petty and pointless question! “Wait, so what’s you two’s last name?”, she asked.

 

A blink. “Ritchey,” Paul assured her. “Why… would you want to know that?”

 

“Well, you two aren’t even related where I’m from, so, like, she’s Mimi Santos, so I was wondering if you were Paul Santos or if she was Mimi Ritchey and honestly I think Paul Santos sounds better but-”

 

She cut her rambling off as she noticed Nick taking notes in a cute little notebook. “What’s that for?”, she asked. 

 

“Just… writing down all the little differences,” Nick explained. “Thought it might be helpful.”

 

Mai had a sudden realization. “Oh my god, that would be useful!”, she exclaimed. “Can I have that?”

 

Josh threw a different, blank tiny notebook at her. “You can have this one.”

 

“How… many of those do you have?”, Mimi suddenly asked, reminding Mai she was there, as unfortunate as it was.

 

Paul shrugged. “Look, the newspaper editor buys us each one a week. I think we probably have at least two hundred by this point.”

 

“Speaking of which!”, Nick interjected. “We were gonna see if we could use our journalistic connections to help you out!”

 

“And by that, we mean put out a call in the paper for anyone who might know something about pink hair or shit like that,” Josh clarified.

 

That… actually sounded like a great idea. She nodded. “Thank you, that’ll help a lot!”

 

“No problem,” Paul said in a way that made it sound like it was definitely a problem.

 

“I would be happy to help as well,” Mimi offered. “I have certain connections I could-”

 

The immensely deep sigh Mai gave cut her off. “You don’t need to worry, I’m not a threat to you and Kakusu.”

 

“Of course you aren’t!”, Mimi hissed. “How insecure do you think I am? I know Kakusu loves me, and she wouldn’t cheat on me with some vapid-”

 

Paul elbowed Mimi. “Come on, you promised you’d be nice.”

 

Mimi rolled her eyes. “I was just saying…”

 

“Don’t worry, I’m not interested in your girlfriend,” Mai assured her. 

 

That bright shade of red Mimi turned was well worth skipping lunch for alone. “Sh-she’s not my girlfriend yet!”

 

“Well, good luck with that,” Mai told her, getting up and going to the door. Maybe if she hurried she could still get some more food! Even if she was a few minutes late to class, Shizuka seemed too out of it today to care. 

 

Speaking of which, it seemed she’d have ample time to work on putting together that notebook of what had changed in this world.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please someone tell me how to make actual chapter titles I'm literally just grabbing the name of the song I'm listening to when I'm posting these please help me


	12. Ian pulls a Shane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying something new with the chapter titles because I'm about to run out of songs I listen to while writing.

Ian had overestimated his ability to stare at a television screen with a superhero movie playing on it next to Jeff and PBG for hours at a time. He’d severely overestimated his enjoyment of that. And, he’d overestimated his ability to forget about stressful things by several kilometers.

 

Because they’d been marathoning Mirari movies all day and Ian was so, so sick of Steel Man and Commander America and he was genuinely looking forward to watching Wasp Man! Wasp Man, who had the worst sounding power because when has a movie about shrinking ever been good, sounded better than watching anything else with all these same plots and characters and people next to him.

 

Yeah, speaking of which, PBG was an awful person to watch movies with because he wouldn’t let you snark at the lame parts! He’d tell you to shut up and let everyone watch the movie instead of making fun of the fact that Johnny Stark had told the bad guys where he lived on national television and other such ridiculous plot points. But no, Peebs had to be a buzzkill supreme.

 

Ugh, he just wanted something to do other than watch a television screen, he’d had enough of that for a lifetime! But, the blankets were curled around him in such a way that getting up would be an ordeal. Not exactly comfortably, but he'd have to probably push Jeff aside if he wanted to stand up, so he tried to just entertain himself with whatever was in reach.

 

Which amounted to his phone, Jeff’s phone, maybe PBG’s if he reached a bit and could figure out the password. And, his phone was near death from a few too many games of Dumbidoom’s Revenge to make sure he hadn't lost his ranking in his time spent in nonexistence (he hadn't, seemed the empty shell at least knew how to play), so that left either “borrowing” someone else’s phone or sucking it up and watching Protectors of the Planets.

 

He tried to do the latter. He really tried. But, alas, he couldn't keep his mind of Hana and wondering what exactly happened to her, and to himself. And to Shane and Wallid and PBG and Mai and well, everyone. Hell, he was worried a little about Jeff, considering he’d apparently been afflicted with nightmares about that apocalyptic death scene with them and Barry. And yeah, maybe it was just a nightmare he picked up on the television receiver, but considering all the other freaky shit, it could just as easily be a vision or a premonition or something else all together.

 

Maybe he should talk to Barry? At least bring it up? Yeah, they hadn't talked much in a while, but maybe he’d be willing to hear him out. Considering his friends were quite an… interesting bunch, he might be more likely to hear him out. It wasn't like getting trapped in a void was much weirder than that creepy puppet of a burger with eyes they kept around.

 

So yeah, he’d talk to Barry. What could possibly go wrong, besides everything that happened as soon as someone said or even thought those words?

 

Well, for one, he could get distracted by PBG’s phone going off- something PBG himself didn't seem to notice. Ian was curious, how wrapped up in that movie was he?

 

As a test, he slipped his hand across Jeff’s lap and onto PBG’s knee, where his phone was resting. Nope, neither of them noticed a thing.

 

How was he so interested that he didn't feel his phone buzzing? That wasn't even an interesting part of the movie, just all the exposition about the Eternity Stones! And how was Jeff… oh.

 

Slipping back, Ian noticed two things: that Peebs was snoring and Jeff had an arm around him. Yep, they were both out of it. Jeff not actually being asleep, but he was certainly more interested in cuddling than the movie.

 

Well, if he had PBG’s phone and a deadly affliction of boredom, there was one thing he could do…

 

He looked at the text notification. Said it was from… uh, “know it all”? Alright, so PBG was one of those people, the ones who used byzantine nicknames for all his contacts instead of just outright saying who they were.

 

Might make it harder to figure out who would be the most fun to text as PBG, but well, he still had nothing better to do and by this point Jeff might actually murder him for making him stand up while PBG’s head was on his shoulder. And then probably fervently deny that he was enjoying it.

 

Oh well, first thing first, he needed to figure out PBG’s password. His first instinct was to try 4-2-6-2, but yeah, no, it probably wouldn't be that. He wouldn't have Hana’s name as his password, especially not in this weird world. He tried it anyways, but it didn't work.

 

So, he decided just to try things until they worked. 5-3-3-3 was a no, but it was a longshot in the first place. Wasn't his birthday either. 1-2-3-4?

 

He was almost embarrassed that that worked. Of course it worked. What else would it have been. But, well, he could snoop now. Like any terrible friend would. Did this make him a bad person? Maybe, but- okay, yeah, this was kind of a shitty thing to do. Maybe he should just put it back and-

 

Another text ding. From the same person. He clicked on it without thinking and his stomach dropped. He was reading it before he could stop himself and he relaxed a bit. Nothing big. Just a little “Hey, heard you weren't feeling well” and a “Need me to bring you anything?”

 

Well, shit, that was a question. From someone he had no idea who it was. And it’d show up that the texts would be read so they’d worry if he didn't say anything and he couldn't wake PBG up to tell him someone was worried about him and he'd been messing with his phone so- yep, he had to answer.

 

Think, think, how did PBG text? Probably lots of smileys and questionable punctuation. So he devised a simple enough answer: “I'm fine thank you :)”

 

Wait, was that right? Did PBG use you or “u”? Did he do the smiley with or without a nose? Would he look suspicious?

 

The person texted back after a few seconds of miserable stress. “Alright, tell me if you need anything! Gotta be a good big brother lol”

 

Big brother… well, that solved the mystery of who he was talking to. “Know it all”, yeah, that would be McJones, wouldn't it?

 

But, wait, a thought occurred to Ian. McJones was Peebs’ older brother, so wouldn't he have grown up with Hana too?

 

Come to think of it, for all they knew, maybe she’d just never come to the school? Maybe she was still somewhere in the world, and just not there? If McJones remembered her, that’d change everything, right? It'd mean she wasn't gone, just somewhere else.

 

PBG seemed convinced that she never existed at all here, but well, he could be wrong. After all, were you going to trust the instinct of someone whose phone password was 1-2-3-4?

 

So, wow, that was two whole leads! Ask Barry if he’d had that dream and ask McJones if he remembered Hana! Simple!

 

And he could go ahead and arrange a meeting between them too, if he really wanted. The movie was almost over, so when it was, he could drag PBG and maybe also Jeff with him to go talk to those two so he didn't look suspicious!

 

He opened PBG’s texts back up and went to “know it all”. “Actually there is something you could do for me”, he told him.

 

A few minutes before a response. “Yeah?”

 

“I wanna talk to you and Barry about something,” he told him. “Maybe in like half an hour or 45 minutes or so but no rush :P”

 

“Alright,” McJones replied before long. “You want me to ask Barry too, or does he know already?”

 

Ian had no way of knowing which contact was Barry (probably “razzberry disaster” but he didn't want to risk it), so he just asked McJones to tell him too and thanked him.

 

And so he waited. And he waited. And he watched the movie a bit more until it was over: something Jeff didn't seem to notice. He seemed suspiciously preoccupied with holding the sleeping PBG close and wow, that was gay even by his standards. He almost felt bad snapping them back to reality.

 

Almost.

 


	13. PBG Does Not Want

Step one: pull blankets off of friends. 

 

Said friends woke up with a little scream and glared, respectively. 

 

Step two: remove distractions.

 

“Hey, we were watching that!”, Jeff protested as Ian turned the television off.

 

Ian rolled his eyes. “You were watching the DVD menu?”

 

Jeff’s eyes darted around nervously. “Uh…”

 

Wow, and Ian thought he was a disaster around cute guys. “Whatever, cuddle time’s over. We’ve got a lead.”

 

“A… lead?” PBG seemed to take a moment to realize what he meant. “On… Hana?”

 

Nodding, Ian threw PBG’s phone into his lap. “Borrowed this, sorry, and told your brother and Barry to meet up with us.”

 

Before PBG could even have a chance to be upset about Ian stealing his phone, Jeff huffed. “Oh, sure, last night talking to Barry wasn’t a good idea but now-”

 

“I never said it wasn’t!”, Ian countered. “Just that we shouldn’t bother him so late at night. Anyways, let’s get going.”

Neither of them moved. “L-let’s get going,” Ian repeated. 

 

PBG gave a too quiet response. “Please no, I don’t want to talk to my brother.”

Ian huffed. Why was he being so apathetic about this? Hana had been his girlfriend and childhood best friend, right?

 

“Look, you insist he’d know things differently from you, but what if he remembers Hana too, and just hasn’t said anything about it because he hasn’t notices she’s gone yet?”, he proposed.

 

After staring at him for a minute, PBG shook his head. “I- I- I don’t want to talk to him! You and Jeff can go!”

 

Oh for the love of… “You think they’re going to listen to me?”, he barked. “Or someone who’s just heard all about it second hand?”

 

“They’re yours and Jeff’s friends as much as they are mine!”, PBG assured him. “Like, yeah I’m friends with Barry, but you-”

 

“I haven’t talked to him since he broke up with me three years ago!”, Ian countered. “Look, I get this is hard to adjust to, but, it’s your brother. You should talk to him about what’s going on with you, not me.”

 

“Well, wh-what if I’m mad at him!”, PBG proposed.

 

Mad? He didn’t really remember any huge fights ever between them, did they get that mad at each other ever? “About what?”

 

A little shrug. “S-something? I can think of a few things, actually.”

 

Ian sighed. Weak, but what else could he say? “Come on, please? At least do it for us,” he begged.

 

“No. I’m not going.” PBG picked the blanket up off the ground, wrapped it back around himself, and crossed his arms. “That’s final.”

 

“Ugh, fine. But Jeff, you’re coming with me.”

 

Jeff seemed to panic. Of course. “Wh-what? No, I’m staying with Peebs!”, he objected.

 

Well, one way to deal with that. Ian grabbed the back of his shirt and started dragging him out the door. “No you’re not.”

 

As he was dragged along, Jeff protested rapidly. “Come on! Why do you get to call the shots here? You stole his phone, you aren’t exactly in the right here!”

 

A smug smile crossed Ian’s face as a perfect retort popped in his head. “You were the one who wanted to talk to Barry.”

 

“Ian?”

 

“Huh?”

 

As Ian shut the door, Jeff huffed out “I hate you.”

 

“Love you too, buddy,” said Ian. “Let’s go ahead and go, think we’re meeting in PBG’s room.”

 

After a moment and after finally deciding to walk beside him normally, Jeff added a different objection. “Ian, seriously, why are you dragging me there? I was having a nice time!”

 

Ah, of course. Ian had used this very same complaint against Jeff many a time. “Yeah, look, I get you were trying to get to first base but I don’t think now is the time or-”

 

An embarrassed squeak. “No, that’s not it at all! I d-don’t even like him like that!”

 

Ian couldn’t help but smirk. “Sure you don’t. And I’m a magical girl that fights evil with sparkles and love.”

 

He knew Jeff was lying, especially since he was hiding his face with a voice an octave higher than usual. But still, he denied it fervently. “I’m serious!”, he insisted. “Dead serious. I want to know why you need me to come with you! You could do this fine on your own, you know way more than I do here!”

 

Oh. Wait. That was an actual point. Uh, did he have a good answer beyond the fact that talking to his ex and PBG’s brother alone sounded unfun? “I don’t feel like being outnumbered.”

 

Jeff uncovered his face just in time for the smirk to be apparent. “...you’re nervous, aren’t you?”

 

“No!”, he quickly countered. “Why the hell would I be nervous?”

 

“You shouldn’t be!”, Jeff insisted. “They’re your friends too, Ian.”

 

“I’m not nervous,” Ian repeated. “And even if I was, they’re not as close to me as they are to you. Your team- you guys are like brothers- well, brothers and Dean. I’m like your estranged third cousin in law.”

 

A little scoffing laugh. “Come on, you’re at least a first cousin once removed!”

 

“Well I-” Ian stopped as he realized he recognized the dorm number they’d just passed. He backed up a bit. “Uh, this is the right dorm, right?”

 

Jeff nodded.

 

He took a deep breath. Here goes nothing, he supposed.

 

Yep, McJones and Barry were already in there, along with Dean, who was swinging his legs off the top bunk a bit too close to the edge. Did… he invite Dean? No, he probably just followed McJones, those two were closer than close. 

 

Both Barry and Dean looked at Ian and Jeff with confusion as they came in. 

 

As for McJones, he didn’t even look at them before he started talking.  

 

“Alright,” he started, continuing almost too fast to keep up with. “Before you say anything, let me just say that I am really, really sorry about last night! I didn’t want you to find out that way and I forgot to lock the door and I promise I never meant to hide anything from you, I just hadn’t found a good way to tell you yet and-”

 

Dean attempted to nudge him from the top bunk. Which looked rather like trying to kick him in the head. “McJones, it’s-”

 

McJones leaned out of the way and stopped talking. “Huh?”

 

“It’s Ian and Jeff,” Barry pointed out. “Not PBG.”

 

He froze. “Uh… I- I can explain?”

 

Yeah, he needed context here. “Please do.”

 

“It’s not as bad as it sounds!”, McJones insisted. “It’s just… just, well, um…”

 

“His brother walked in on us making out!”, Dean provided.

 

The shade of red McJones turned was one as of yet undocumented by human beings. “Yes, that. PBG called us here, wanted to talk-”

 

“No he didn’t,” Ian corrected.

 

An annoyed frown. “Yeah, he did,” McJones countered. “He texted me and-”

 

Jeff interrupted him. “Ian stole his phone because he wanted to talk to you about something else.”

 

He got slightly redder. “Oh. Uh, I assumed he was upset about it, and about me not telling him sooner me and Dean were seeing each other, and wanted to talk it out. That’s why I started-”

 

Once more, he was interrupted. Ian did it himself this time. “So why the fuck did you think I told Barry to come?”

 

“You... wanted a neutral party as a mediator?”, McJones answered, seeming way too unsure. 

 

Wow. “Yep, you really are PBG’s brother,” Ian deadpanned. 

 

Barry piped up. “Yeah, Ian? Why did you want to talk to me, anyways?”, he asked. 

 

Right, uh… “Oh boy, this is gonna be a long story...”


	14. We Are All Too Sober for This

PBG’s desire to actually talk to McJones was approaching absolute zero, if he was being entirely honest. He was just so, so confused. Of course he loved Hana, of course he wanted her to be okay, but, well, all of this just made him feel overwhelmed! He could barely process that he’d once been a member of Hidden Block, or dated Jimmy. Just imagine how many more things McJones would remember differently from him in a childhood where Hana wasn’t around!

 

Plus there was that… thing he’d walked onto last night. The image he’d very much like to bleach out of his brain, thank you.

 

But, even still, it took about two minutes after Jeff and Ian left for him to get sick of just sitting there, of just letting things stay how they were. 

 

He needed to find the answers. He needed to sort things out. For Hana, if nothing else.

 

So he went down to… heck, where were they meeting? He thought he’d heard them saying something about his room as they were leaving.

 

Yay, the place he didn’t want to look at and wonder why it felt so empty because he was so sure he’d had a roommate but he couldn’t remember them. Combined with the person he didn’t want to talk to at all, this was a perfect recipe for him to end up crying on the floor.

 

But, it was his only idea, so he went. And sure enough, as soon as he got there, he heard voices through the closed door and paused to listen at the door.

 

“So, like, you’re serious?”, a voice it took him a second to place as Dean’s said. Was Dean invited? Eh, he probably just went with McJones by default. They’d been inseparable so long it was kind of a wonder he hadn’t suspected they’d been dating before… or in his world? Were they even together back in his first world? God, this was hurting his head...

 

“I’m dead serious, unfortunately,” a voice that was definitely Ian’s deadpanned. 

 

“You... seriously come from another dimension?” McJones’s voice for sure. He sounded tired, almost. 

 

A bit of a sigh from Ian. “Well, to be quite honest, I’m not sure about that. But I know things have changed from how they were in the world I remember.”

 

The next voice was… Barry? He thought so, at least. “Question then, why are you telling us this?”

 

“Well, simply put, we need more help. We’ve got Hidden Block and Normal Boots, but they’ve not exactly been much help so far.”

 

“And you think the three of us could help?”, questioned Dean.

 

“Well, I mean, I thought Barry and McJones could help- ow!”

 

Jeff was the one that huffed, that much he could tell, clear as day. He’d probably elbowed Ian for being rude.

 

“But, well, still, why us?”, McJones pressed.

 

“Well, Barry is a different story, we’ll get to that later, but you… well, your brother, he’s one of the ones who remembers things differently.”

 

A tiny, stuttered “oh” from his brother made PBG feel a surge of guilt. He sounded hurt, almost.

 

“Is… that what he wanted to talk about last night?”, McJones questioned. 

 

Ian just gave an “mm-hm” and he could hear his older brother sigh. “I… I should have tried harder to listen to him.”

 

“Well, maybe, but you couldn’t’ve known,” Jeff pointed out. “Besides, we took care of him!”

 

He could almost see the sad nod from McJones. “I’m sure you did, but… can you tell me what he doesn’t remember?”

 

“That- that’s what we wanted to ask you about, actually. Since you two would have had the same childhood, we were going to compare those memories.”

 

A sudden noise, like McJones had suddenly stood up. “I am asking a question about my baby brother, and I want you to answer it. Now.”

 

How did McJones sound so scary? PBG felt himself shudder. 

 

“Tell me, what has he forgotten!”

 

Despite himself, PBG found himself answering. “Hana Mizuno!”, he shouted out.

 

Awkward silence. PBG buried his face in his hands. Well, there went his idea of just eavesdropping.

 

The door creaked open, McJones looking up at him with his lips pursed into a strange frown. “How… long had you been there?”, he questions.

 

“Um… a while?”

 

Dean was laughing, and Barry was definitely biting down a grin. McJones just seemed a little sad. 

 

PBG took a deep breath. “I- I’m sorry. I just, I should have come in the first place but, I was scared, and I really didn’t want to be reminded of last night and I- I didn’t know what you’d say and-”

 

He was cut off by a hug. “Shut up, alright?”, McJones muttered into his shoulder. “We’ll take care of this. We’ll figure things out.”

 

McJones pulled away and quickly turned away. “Now, who the heck is ‘Hana Mizuno’, exactly? I’m guessing that’s a name, at least.”

 

His heart fell a bit. “I was… hoping you’d remember her. She was my childhood best friend, before we moved!”

 

Hesitating, McJones turned back towards him. “Wait… uh, moved? When-?”

 

Cold ice started its way down PBG’s throat and into his chest. Nope, this was what he’d been afraid of. 

 

Luckily, Dean blurted something out that melted that ice a bit. “Come on, you guys moved to Wasurenagusa like, in what, fifth grade?”

 

A few confused blinks from McJones. “I don’t remember that,” he confessed. “Dean, are you sure you’re remembering that right?”

 

“No, no, PBG’s told me he moved when he was little too,” Jeff provided. “Before all this, I remember him saying he lived in… Amaritsu?”

 

“Amariritsu,” Ian corrected. “I think that’s what Hana said, at least.”

 

“Yeah, that sounds right!”, Dean exclaimed, and PBG let out a deep breath. 

 

McJones sat down on the bottom bunk and sighed. “Why… why don’t I remember that at all, then? I thought we’d always lived in Wasurenagusa.”

 

He looked like he was about to be sick. And how could he not? PBG knew from experience that being told your memories were wrong in everyone else’s eyes was far from pleasant.

 

But, after a silent moment, Ian gave a quick “damn, guess there’s no answer there.”

 

“Answer?”, Barry questioned.

 

Ian took a breath. “Hana Mizuno, she was a student at this school but no one remembers her now. We wanted to know if she was still… existing, and we figured if McJones remembered her that’d be our answer. But, if he doesn’t remember even living in the same town as her, then it’s a dead end.”

 

“No, it’s suspicious!”, Dean countered. “If he doesn’t remember it, then it must be important! That’s always how things go!”

 

“This isn’t an anime,” Barry corrected. “It doesn’t work like that.”

 

No one corrected Barry, but the look Ian gave him told PBG that they were thinking the same thing: it probably did work like that.

 

McJones just stayed quiet and fell on his side onto the bed. Muttered something about being too sober for this.

 

“Uh, Barry, even if this isn’t an anime, can we… just suppose for a moment that things might be kinda weird?”, Jeff requested.

 

A nod.

 

“Alright, so, like, have you ever had a dream about me and Ian dying violently to zombies?”

 

What? What the heck was that supposed to mean?

 

This was a sentiment shared by Barry, as he just raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “Uh, what?”

 

Ian sighed again. “Long story, we just need a yes or no.”

 

“Yes?”, Barry answered hesitantly. “I mean, that sounds like a dream I had one time. Not as freaky as the giant spiders one, but I think I’ve had a dream like that? Don’t remember Jeff being there but I think you were. But why, exactly?”

 

PBG was wondering that himself, but Jeff quickly answered it. “Ian and I both had a dream like that too. Sorta. Long story. We were wondering if it was something relevant.”

 

He shrugged. “I dunno, I don’t really have any idea what any of this is. But I mean, that’s kinda weird and I wouldn’t mind knowing more about it.”

 

“I’m on board too!”, Dean exclaimed. “This sounds cool!”

 

McJones muttered something that sounded like “yeah sure, not like I needed to sleep ever again,” which honestly sounded about like how PBG felt. 

 

This was gonna be a long road, he felt. Even if they found Hana, this felt like it went deeper than just that. Things other than her were different; Wallid and Shane had pink hair and Paul had a jerk sister and he probably was going to have Dean as a brother-in-law. 

 

But, he had his friends with him. PBG let out a sigh. No matter what happened, he would be fine with so many awesome people on his side.

 


	15. Caddy Does Not Watch Anime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a terrible case of writer's block with a chapter involving Shane and Jared, so I had to change the perspective a bit. So, that's why Scarfulhu is in the story now. That and I wanted to put him in. Don't worry, I'll try not to add any more non canon characters (unless you guys actually like them).

Caddy’s week had gotten off to a weird-ass start with all the pink hair nonsense and weird time travelling amnesia or whatever Ian had. He really just wanted to have a nice, relaxing Tuesday evening. He’d invited his old middle school roommate Connor over so they could catch up on Doctor When together like they used to, asked Jimmy to make himself busy so they could just relax, and it would be nice.

But when he came in to set up for his nice evening, Jimmy was still in their room, and not only that, but Wallid was there too. They didn’t look like they were leaving either, with Wallid curled up in Jimmy’s lap and an old tape of some magical girl anime playing on the tv.

A deep sigh left his mouth. “Jimmy, what did I tell you?”

Jimmy looked up at him with great disinterest. “That you think the original Ripto the Dragon games need to be remastered more than we need to fix global warming,” he deadpanned.

He really wasn’t in the mood for him being smart. “You know what I’m talking about!”, he exclaimed.

Wallid gave an awkward laugh. “I- I’m sorry, I- we need to be in here,” he apologized, sounding actually somewhat sincere. “Uh, we can have a double date?”

Fighting the urge to correct him about his plans being in any way a date, he tried to actually progress the conversation. “Why, because we have a VHS player?”, he questioned. “Just torrent your Magical Girl shit like a civilized person!”

“I usually do, I just…”

Trailing off, Wallid left an empty silence that Caddy rushed to fill. “Just what?”

“I- I need somewhere quiet, and Luke needs our room for some recording thing I don’t get,” he muttered.

God, what was he so upset about? “Bug Moosey then!”, Caddy suggested. “He has like, twenty VHS players!”

“No, he and Jeff are hanging out with Peebs,” Jimmy corrected.

“Well, then I’m sure they’d be fine with more company! Jeff likes Magical Girls, so just-”

Wallid cut him off almost desperately. “Caddy, please. I-It’s hard to explain, but...”

Caddy sighed deeper. “Well, I promised Connor he could come over tonight and he should be here any minute, so make it quick.”

“Have you ever played Mire Emblem?”, asked Wallid.

“What?” Wasn’t that the game Jimmy had been complaining about not being able to marry any guys but the thief with an eyepatch in? What’d that have to do with anything?

“You know, that tactics game- the one all the sword guys in Stomp are from?”

Was that the same game? Frankly he didn’t care. “No. I don’t think I ever have had the slightest desire to play that.”

“...shoot,” Wallid muttered. “Well that analogy is dead. Uh, how many animes have you watched?”

He thought hard. “Uh, just the Rapara the Rapper one.”

Wallid went from upset to just annoyed, judging by how his face dropped. “...you’re not easy to explain things to, are you?”

“Apparently not. What are you getting at?”

He drew in a deep breath. “If I have pink hair now, I need to be a Main Character!”, proclaimed Wallid. “I’m trying to figure out how to do that without sucking!”

“Main…” He thought back to yesterday’s weirdness. “Right, you mentioned that. Look, I don’t actually give a flying fuck what’s going on, but good luck with your magic hair color change.”

An annoyed huff. Jimmy glared at him too as Wallid gave an indignant shout. “Caddy, this is serious! I need to not be Shinji!”

“...who?”

More deep sighing. “I don’t wanna be a wimp who can’t step up to the challenge and lets everyone down and lets humanity ascend or whatever the heck that was!”, Wallid… well, that wasn’t an explanation. But, he said it, at least.

“And watching Salor Sun will help this how?”

Jimmy piped in finally. “He needs to study the finest heroes of our time to learn how it should be done!”

He took a moment to figure out how exactly someone would answer that before coming up with an actual idea. “Okay, compromise: watch Doctor When with us and don’t talk.”

More pouting. “...we’re in Japan, Cads. It’d be more effective to study Japanese heroes!”

Caddy found himself groaning. “Remind me, who’s the one with the missing pink haired girlfriend again?”

Wallid and Jimmy provided two very different answers simultaneously without missing a beat.

“PBG.”

“Mai.”

Well, considering one of those was currently with Moosey and Jeff… well, yeah, it was clear which answer Caddy should listen to.

“I’ll be back in a minute.”

Both seemed confused. “Huh? Where are you-”

“I’m going to have Mai come and assure you that you won’t destroy the world or whatever you said,” Caddy announced.

His roommate scoffed a bit. “Do you even know where her room is?”

“Uh…”

A smirk. God, he hated being proven stupid. “It’s room 325,” Jimmy told him. “Go... have fun or whatever.”

Ugh, why was Jimmy so infuriating sometimes? He slammed the door open, only to have a sudden cry of pain interrupt his train of thought.

“O-ow!”

Caddy took a step back to see where it’d come from. Connor- he was standing right in front of the door in a way that would have probably been stupid unless he was trying to eavesdrop, but nevermind that! He was holding a hand in front of his face in pain.

“Oh my god, are you okay?”, Caddy asked frantically. “Did I hurt you?”

Connor just shook his head, taking his hand away. His cheek was pretty red, but other than that, he seemed alright. “Yeah, I’m fine. Uh… I’m guessing we’re off for Doctor When tonight…”

Scoffing at the idea, Caddy rushed to assure him his- well, their evening wouldn’t be ruined. “Of course not, I’m trying to get that ironed out. Worse comes to worse, I’ll make Jared let us watch it in his room.”

“Jared? Like, sparkly prettyboy Jared?”

Right, them being D&D buddies was sort of a secret… “Uh, long story, he... owes me a favor. Just, don’t worry, I’ll get this sorted out.”

His friend shrugged. “Eh, I mean, it’s not that big a deal, we can just do it when it’s better for-”

Nope! Nope. “I just slammed a door in your face, so I’m not about to let you down.”

Why did his assurance make Connor frown a bit? “Alright, but uh, you sure that you should be messing with this pink hair stuff? I’ve heard some… interesting stuff about it.”

Oh right, eavesdropping. “Uh, how much did you overhear?”

A little smirk. “Have you seriously only watched one anime? You’ve been going to school in Japan for like, a year and a half!”

“Shut up. Just- I’ll be right back, alright?”

He was swiftly corrected. “Actually, I’m coming with you.”

Huh? But… “Why?”

Connor crossed his arms. “Because I’d rather not stand around and wait for you to come back. That’d just be sad.”

Well, he couldn’t really deny that… “Eh, fair enough. Come along, maybe it could help somehow.”

Connor nodded and walked along after him until they got to the front doors of Bluebell House. Then, he hesitated.

“Are… are you sure it’s a good idea to be going to the girls’ dorm this late?”, he questioned.

Caddy just shrugged. “It’s like, eight. Relax. No one will care.”

“But, are we even allowed to-”

He felt his face fall. “Shit. I- I actually don’t know. Uh, let’s be fast.”

They managed to make it to the room Jimmy had mentioned as Mai’s fast enough, but upon getting there, Caddy realized that this would probably in no way help.

Considering Shane and Jared were already in there, this would probably just end up being a pretty long night.

 


End file.
